Ako

From OSWIKI

Title:	Samurai
Clan:	Gangrel
Covenant:	Circle of the Crone
Status
Clan:	1
Tokyo:	2
Covenant:	1

[Character Pictures] - [Character Journal]

Mortal Life

Ako was born in a small village 50 miles from Tokyo on January 3rd, 1890. It is rumored that her father was a demon, a sexual predator that Westerners would have called an Incubus, but some say that is because her mother was unmarried at the time of the pregnancy. The folklore surrounding that implies that children of such a union would be more succeptable to demonic influence. It is unknown how true this rumor is, but Ako does not speak of her father, only to say she did not know him and that he left before she was born. Because of this, she took her mother's family name, Saitou, until her death.

Ako lived and died in the village, knowing no other way of life until later. She was an odd child to her family, as she did not seem destined to be a typical Japanese girl, and seemed more apt for male-dominated past times. She had four brothers who she fought with constantly, and by the time she was twelve she was able to hold her own in a fight against any man in the village.

Ako was also more interested in caring for the family animals than learning the Tea Ceremony or other traditional duties of her gender. She would spend long hours tending the small farm her family kept, and spend nights wandering the woods with the family dog. When she was thirteen, she found a dead wolf that looked half-eaten, surrounded by a large pile of grey ash. She suddenly felt like she was being watched, and returned home quickly. She avoided the woods for a week before returning. After that, she would have that watched feeling occasionally, but she didn't flee the woods any longer. After a year, she started searching deeper into the woods for something or someone who might have been watching her. Over time she found signs of other people traveling in or through the woods, but nothing was enough to prove someone was watching her. Eventually she stopped looking, but she continued to wander deeper and deeper into the woods. When she turned fifteen, her family finally started putting restrictions on her to try and mold her into a proper woman so she could be married off and finally be useful to the family. She was given all the training her family could afford, including paper-making, poetry, drawing and sculpting, to try and give her "culture" to keep her from her wild ways.

Embrace

Ako was embraced on her sixteenth birthday: January 3rd, 1906. She finally found the person who had been watching her all those years in the woods. His name was Ingami, and he was an Unbound Gangrel. He told her he had been watching her for years and that he felt drawn to her. Her fighting ability and her ability to deal with animals were what made him decide to Embrace her. He took her away from the village that night, her family only knowing that a stranger had come to the village and made an offer to her father to take her off his hands and he'd agreed to it.

Post Embrace

Ingami brought her to Tokyo, where he introduced her to the Court as his childe, as he was new to the city. Sakura allowed him admittance as long as he didn't cause any trouble, and he told her he planned to stay out of everyone's way. He kept himself away, but Ako did not. She found herself going to Court without her sire, which proved disadvantageous to her, as she occasionally got in trouble for things she was unaware of, those minute Court details that some of the more Traditional elders and Primogen took to heart. She quickly learned them, having a desire to be around others of her kind and to understand what it all meant. Her sire helped her occasionally, but he also chided her for wanting to be involved. He told her she would find nothing but disaster that way, and she should follow his example and only deal with other Kindred when she had to. He still taught her the basics of her new condition, and stories and myths of the Gangrel, but his influence ended in 1909 when he was sent into Torpor after a fight with a vampire of the mysterious sect VII. She had entered the room where the fight was happening and chased off the vampire before they could get in their killing blow against her sire. She took him to the back of the haven he stayed in where he slept during the day, and she placed him inside and sealed the room, continuing to use the rest of the haven as her own while he slept.

A year later, in 1910, Sakura asked her to become the Kunoichi, the term for a female ninja, of Tokyo after the previous one was killed in a fight with another Unbound Gangrel. Sakura might have been trying to use Ako as political leverage, since Ako was herself an Unbound Gangrel, but if she was Ako never knew. Ako accepted immediately, because she wanted a position, any position, in the society, and because she was starting to like Sakura herself. She spent the next five years dealing directly with the Kindred of Tokyo, and more with the lawbreakers than any other. It began to wear on her perception of the Kindred as a whole. No longer where they the ones she wanted to associate with, but more something she had to do as a duty. She didn't mind the duty, but the constant political movings started to wear on her, and she began to desire a return to her more simple life she had before her Embrace. But even with that, she never left the city or retired her post. In fact since coming with her sire, she has only left Tokyo once, and has no desire to leave any longer. This is her home.

In 1915 Sakura handed over the Shogun to Iawo, and Ako stayed on as the Kunoichi. She continued in the role, doing the minimum she could. Part of the reason she stayed was that she had begun to like the small amount of power given to her, and that she didn't have much responsibility in addition to it. She also began to be afraid of who Iawo might replace her with, as there were many more bloodthirsty Kindred who would have jumped at the chance to be the Shogun's Assassin, instead of the simple enforcer that Ako played.

In March, 1940, Ako left Tokyo, the one and only time, to return to her village. She returned as her daughter Akiko, explaining to her family that Ako had finally died at the age of 50. She told them the body would be brought home to the village for burial the next day. The shipment the next day brought a small casket that was locked closed and never opened, and had stones inside to give it weight. The funeral for Ako was held on March 4th, 1940. She wore traditional white and acted as a proper Japanese woman would at a funeral, giving deference to the men and staying with the women when necessary. She accepted with a smile the comments on how much she looked like her mother when she left the village years before. Ako returned to Tokyo afterwards and has never left.

During World War Two, Ako kept more to herself than she had before. She did not believe in the war effort, not because she didn't support her country, but because she was starting to believe that violence should be the last resort in any situation, and that Japan had put itself in the wrong by its invasion of Manchuria in the first place. She only showed up to Court when Iawo demanded she do, which became less and less as the years progressed.

When the war ended, Ako started resuming her times at Court, and started having more social interaction with the other Kindred of the city again. Her beliefs about the society of Kindred began warming again, as she found a few new, younger Kindred whom she could relate with. These were members of the Carthian Movement, who had come from the United States to "help" with the rebuilding of Japan after the war. Many of them stopped coming to Court after they found themselves ostracized by the more traditional Japanese elders. She started associating with them more and more, and found herself more and more unwelcome by the Elders at court. But she stopped associating with them a few years later when one of their leaders started talking revolution and a new "Kindred Government" in Tokyo. She returned fully and strongly to her duties for Iawo, and used her knowledge of the Carthians to help disrupt their activities. Many Carthians have hated her since, and feel she betrayed them.

Sakura's return to Court in 1981 became a cornerstone event for Ako, cementing her relationship as a follower of Sakura's ideals. She saw Iawo's anger build, and her decision was sealed when he ordered Ako to kill Sakura and she flatly refused. This enraged Iawo, who lunged at Sakura himself when she turned her back on him. Ako leapt to stop him, bearing her claws and killing him with a few strikes. She stood over him as his body slowly dissolved to ashes, then quickly moved forward and kneeled before Sakura and presented herself for punishment for killing another Kindred. The Primogen present suggested leniency due to the situation, and Ako was punished privately but not killed over the incident.

Ako continued in her duties as Kunoichi, trying to only use her privileges only for the good of the city. Ako slowly lost touch with the mortal world during the 1980s, as the Tokyo scene was almost completely dominated by the business world. Japan had transitioned from warriors to businessmen, but the same drive and passion existed and pushed them further into global electronic dominance. Ako's mindset stayed a few decades behind the mortal trends. The only thing she ever focused on was teenage fashion, because it kept her from being too obviously anachronistic in public.

The 1990s were a quiet period for Ako, continuing in her duties and attending meetings as required, until her sire arose from Torpor in 1992. She helped him get up to speed on the events in the world since his sleep, including what she had walked in on and that she had never found that vampire again, even after searching. Her sire appreciated her efforts enough and went back to his solitary lifestyle. He did not like that she had taken a city position and gotten so involved in Kindred Politics, but he respected her desires in that area. He still wanders Tokyo, but he does not attend Court on any regular basis, maybe once every few years when Ako asks him to go.

The 2000 millennium hysteria struck Japan as much as anywhere else in the world, but Ako didn't believe any of it. She felt if the computer-world crashed, then the world would simply go back to the way it was before them, and she understood that world. The closer the date came, the more she wished it would happen, to the point that she spent all of New Year's Eve, 1999 in her haven praying for the crash. It didn't happen, but she realized that her spiritual side had died long before it could ever have truly blossomed the century before, and started searching out teachers in Shinto and other religious and spiritual beliefs. She talked with a few members of the Ordo Dracul, but found it a bit too esoteric for her tastes. She could not stand the beliefs of what she'd heard of the Lancea Sanctum, and that left the Circle of the Crone. She began going to meetings of the other Primogen and the Shogun, and began asking questions and studying the beliefs. She felt that this was where she belonged after a year of study and joined the Chorus in 2001, and then she became an Acolyte in 2002. She has been an active member since then, but she has had no desire to play the internal political and status games to gain rank in the Circle. She is content as an Acolyte and has no desire at this time to go further.

Her belief system has evolved over time, and is basically that the female is the body of creation, and should be worshiped as such. Women are superior in every way to men, but not to the point of exclusion, because men are useful for many things as well. She believes that women have always secretly been in charge, influencing husbands and consorts, but that should change and women should be allowed to be openly in charge of anything they so desire. She believes that if the Crone was the mother of monsters, and that she herself is the daughter of a demon, then she should accept that aspect of herself and not hide or be ashamed of it.

In late 2007 Ako was promoted by Sakura to the position of Samurai of Tokyo. However, those old enough to know the feudal terms (or those steeped in it, such as the traditional Japanese Invictus), call her onna bugeisha instead. However, most of those in Sakura's Court simply use the title Samurai.

Ako continues as the Samurai to Sakura, and can be seen roaming Tokyo's parks and malls. She plays the role of teenager in the city quite well, dressing in Gothic Lolita and blending with the young girls of the city constantly. Her other choice of clothing is jeans and tshirts, being very Western in her appearance. For formal situations outside of Court, such as Tea Ceremonies or meetings of the Circle of the Crone, she wears a very traditional Kimono, that happens to be the one she was given when she was 15.

Character Description

Ako is a small, Japanese girl in her mid-teens with short, black and red hair. She stands 5' tall and weighs nearly 100 pounds. (Presence 2, Blood Potency 4, Humanity 4, City Status 2, http://wod.amokk.org/characters/ako/images/ako.jpg )