Alalā De'Noir

Alalā De'Noir is a third year student hailing from Haven Academy. He is part of Team HHAZ.

Appearance
Alalā is a surprisingly handsome individual despite coming from a harsh childhood of constant physical bullying. His face is rough with a few faded scars here and there with a slight pencil mustache, rather large eyebrows, unkempt heavy gray hair with scattered golden strands that makes his hair look as if it contains the very precious metal within his fringe. His eyes are startlingly a deep sapphire with accompanying pearly whites with a missing upper right fang and earrings resembling a crow's feet attached to the side from his ears.

Covering his head is a helmet-mask likened to that of a Crow's head and a plague mask, with large round glasses held by metal casings and hoses connected to either side at the base of the beak-part of the mask into two small separate gas canisters/purifiers of (usually flavoured) purified air. Covering around this is a shawl made of artificial feathers of varying shades of whites and greys that achieve a sort of camo-like appearance.

For his top he wears a slightly tattered black suit with golden metal fittings with a Crow's beak on the left that pin the suit open. Underneath the suit is a burnt-umber vest with a peculiar heart-shape collar and buttons in shape of singular feathers, and underneath that as a simple ivory-white t-shirt. The sleeves of the suit earlier are long and cuffed at the end with a large button resembling a Crow's eye being attached, with one on each cuff.

Over this is a feathered cloak with a similar feathered cloak with the same camo-like color palette like the shawl that reaches down to his calves.

For his bottoms he wears similarly black slacks with long knee-high combat boots likened to that of a soldier's. Attached to the ends of the boots are metal claws fastened directly into the boots. He may also wear a long heavy-gray skirt that looks like that of a monk's robes. This is held together by a blue and gold patterned belt.

Backstory
Alalā De'Noir, born under the Noir family, was a simple child who all of a sudden got involved with the White Fang and was convinced to join for what used to be a justified point. But at the point when the White Fang's leader stepped down then started the spiraling chaos that Al had to endure.

He was constantly being trained all of a sudden, with the only words that try to reason the harsh training was that it was "to protect the Faunus". At first he thought he was doing the right thing, then came the job he was put under. Not only that, he wasn't allowed to return home anymore and instead was forced to stay with the WF to "better his training's efficiency".

In the words of his trainer, he was tasked with a "great mission" to stop anyone trying to betray the WF. What that meant was that he is to be trained to be an assassin, and new training sessions came with this which was all for the sake of creating an strong and efficient assassin. From unlocking his aura to discovering his semblance, he all gained these from living with the organization which he was proud of. To better keep Al from becoming a deserter himself, he was somewhat mentally brainwashed to believe that his organization was doing the right thing no matter the costs.

He was 11 when he was given his first target, and coming with him was a veteran who ended up becoming his pillar of support, as he was the only person he felt he could really depend on. That man knew of the sinister plans the WF are doing, and he doesn't want Al to be another of their assassins so he put it onto himself to "teach" him.

Every time they were together, Al was taught him his philosophies in life as well as given questions that made him think for himself for once rather than just say what should be said. It was because of this that he slowly but surely realized himself of the dubious and cruel nature that is now the WF.

At 14, however, it was here that Al was given a mission he couldn't ever do. It was to kill the veteran assassin who has been his only family ever since they have taken him away from his parents. It was here that he had no choice but to run, and he was gonna take his senior with him who wasn't fazed upon hearing the kill order put under his head but rather he sighed in relief.

"Well that means that I don't have to worry about getting backstabbed every night.", he said in such a cool and collected manner that Al couldn't help but feel brave and confident. He had his senior, and with his and his senior's skills the WF has given them combined they can surely escape the organization.

But such things don't always go how one wishes it, and unfortunately his confidence led to a slip-up that his senior had to- no... chose to take for himself to save Al and secure his escape but at the cost of his life.

Alalā became deeply despaired of his mistake that his senior had to suffer, and it felt as if escaping was pointless in the first place. But, a simple family, the Delories', of a small inn took him in and protected Al while also helping him in his depression, especially the family's daughter whose strong innocence and optimism couldn't be compared nor stepped on no matter what Al said even if there was strong reasoning behind it.

The powerful emotions he felt from that little girl had struck him so closely to his heart, as it reminded him of his own senior's words and it was at this moment that he found his reason for living.

And that was to bring the evils of the WF to justice, and to protect people like the family that took him in from their nefarious actions. To protect him, the family had to move away into the main capital Haven. Luckily the family had already planned on moving their for safety and financial reasons and it took only a week after his stay that they all quickly moved out of the village before any WF agents find Al.

In Haven a few years after his desertion, he now lives as an adopted child of the Delories and works as a part-time delivery boy for a bakery close by while also acting vigilante work every now and then under an alias. Here he learns about the combat academies and truly understood the kind of damage the Grimm does on a daily basis. As he lived in the WF, he was taught to also handle Grimm but he never really knew how much damage they can achieve as news and the such is only available for the higher-ups.

The revelation that the Grimm can cause just as, if not more, damage as the WF made him rethink what he must do to truly protect his family, and it came to him from his newly adoptive father who recommends him Haven which he applies for and is successfully enrolled in.

Haven was for him a place not to become stronger, rather he only truly understands what the school was to him besides a teaching facility after meeting his teammates and partner: It was to train his social skills. As he had lived most of his life following what he thought was right with a childlike innocence but never really got any social experience due to the conditions of the WF, he could never practice talking to people, and he always goes quiet and is very blunt in his words since he doesn't understand the gravity of saying a word in a certain way or in a certain situation.

Here he was always engaged in socializing thanks to his team, and slowly but surely he begins to understand the nuances behind a conversation. At the beginning, he would use gestures and body language to help in expressing himself which blew up as he got more and more social. It made him do more bombastic or expressive gestures that made people think he's practicing in acting. But despite the weirdness, his friends couldn't help but acknowledge that its one of his most endearing points besides his strong optimism thanks to his adoptive little sister.

As of what has happened during the Vale Vytal Festival, Al as given a big reality check about the dangers WF is as of late. Being able to use the Grimm in such a manner to attack an entire capital made him very fearful of what the WF can do now, but his friends remind him of his own optimistic quotes which helped in snapping him back into it.

Personality
Alalā is a highly optimistic but surprisingly philosophical, expressive and outspoken individual who has strong reasoning and problem-solving skills thanks to his time in WF. He's a hardworking fellow with a strong sense of justice to right the wrongs of the WF. Though his appearance may make other's first impressions of him questionable, deep down inside he is an innocent lad who only wishes for the best for everyone even for WF.

He is strong-willed but can get over-confident especially when he's got his friends with him, and can be easily emotionally hurt at his weakest. But it is at these moments he grows and becomes stronger, especially when he's got great influences around him who have molded his character to what it is now, or by a strong reason to live and protect through his senior's memories.

His most endearing trait is his bombastic expressiveness with body language and gestures. He has always used gesturing to better express himself during the times he was first started socializing and this is because he was taught to use such gestures to communicate silently between agents. However, as his prior shyness slowly fades away it is replaced with a more expressive set of gestures and this grew the more sociable he gets.

He is all-in-all an emotionally-driven but rational individual and he isn't afraid to express his opinions in the most outlandish way he can. He wants his voice to be heard, rather than to speak what others want to hear. It is this newfound selfishness that gives him the strength to fight for himself, but never will he allow such selfishness to burden others even if he doesn't want it unless otherwise.

Burning Soul
Is Al's signature weapon. An Censer-flail with a mechanism that turns Dust, from Dust rounds, into smoke and can split into two shotgun-revolvers.

The Censer-flail is intricately designed with a detachable hexagonal mace 16 cm long and 12 cm wide with four jagged edges and a chain length of 30 cm and an extending handle starting at around 50 cm which can extend to over 80 cm long.

The flail can then be detached from the chain at the base and transform into twin shotgun revolvers designed with barrel closer down to the hand with a weight above it to stabilize it when firing. Each can hold six rounds at a time and can use a wide variety of Dust shells.

In its Censer-flail form, it can activate the Dust shells loaded inside, which then through a mechanism made by Al himself creates dust-infused smoke which Al can can be activated to cause large elemental explosions. Not only that, the flail has a specially-created bulb that uses the dust as light. The intensity of the light is controlled by Al himself through his aura, and the intensity is enough to blind someone with prolonged exposure.

Reaping Fog
This semblance allows Al to "become one with the mist". He can freely move within smoke, mist, dust clouds, or anything similar and he loses weight the more his body is surrounded by it. When he is fully surrounded by smoke that he loses all weight and can essentially fly within it. He can continue to do this as long as he has 50% of his body within the smoke after becoming fully surrounded. He is not incorporeal when he is fully surrounded in smoke.

Another addition to this semblance is that every part of the smoke he has passed through will become infused with his aura, which changes the smoke's properties to allow it to stick into objects. Even a bullet fired through the smoke can be latched onto a patch of aura-infused smoke and this can lead a trail of the source that can stay connected until it loses enough aura that it disperses naturally into the air like normal.

The aura-infused smoke, if its mixed with Dust, cannot be activated by anyone but Al's own aura. This prevents others from just activate the dust clouds he makes all willy-nilly, and can make for interesting explosive conclusions.

An interesting side-effect of this semblance is that the user can breathe out smoke. Al can control the smoke's density so that it just looks as if he's breathing in a cold enviroment, but at moments when he loses focus of keeping the smoke under control, which is pretty much second nature, he begins to spastically cough out smoke.

Prowess
Once a trained assassin, he was trained in the art of deception and quick takedowns. Kali is one of his strongest skills which has been molded well into his present personal martial arts. In a CQC situation, he can easily take advantage of the nature of the ball-and-chain to make deceptive lockdowns or disarms through the use of both the chain and the handle.

His choice of the rather difficult to use flail is largely for its strength against the Grimm. It is easiest for him to lead a Beowulf into charging him as he swings his flail and he is confident that the ball-and-chain isn't that prevalent with hunters and most Majors may not have knowledge to face against it.

His weapon though doesn't just function as just a weapon. Probably its most important function is to create smoke for his body to be covered in. Since his semblance makes him lose weight if his body is covered in smoke, it gives him the great advantage of maneuverability as the lost weight can make him less tired from performing multiple taxing actions like dodging.

However, since he loses weight that means he loses strength outside from his weapon. His punches will become less powerful and he can't take advantage of gravity to take people the usual way. To make up for this he primarily uses his weapon's gun form when he's inside the smoke, or focuses entirely on Kali.

One of his best skills however is disrupting a fight. He can cause a great deal of havoc for his opponents due to the nature of his whole kit being capable of taking out masses of enemies with little effort. Thanks to said kit, and his knowledge taken from the WF, he understands well that the key to victory is to cause the enemy distress or chaos that him or his allies can take full advantage of. Thanks to his weapon creating smoke, he can create haphazard battle conditions that his team is well built to work around and exploit. He also aims for taking out or at least distracting the more dangerous combatants until his teammates are free from any other obstructions to help him out.

Because of his skill set, he is an irreplaceable member of the team. His knowledge and techniques on how to make a fight go ugly, and know how to turn that ugly fight in his or his team's favour is entirely unique to him which makes him a force to be reckoned with.

Also, Al can do parkour. This means he is still slippery even if he doesn't have any smoke to use. This nimble skill can also help in leading his opponents into bad situations or he can make use of his surroundings for escape or to find an advantageous spot he can use to win a fight.

Etymology

 * Alalā is the native name of the Hawaiian crow, which is jet black from its feathers to its eyes.
 * Noir means black in french.

Trivia

 * Burning Souls' name is taken from the GARNiDELiA song "Burning Soul" (which is one of my favourites from her). GARNiDELiA is best known for their opening ambiguous (another of my favourites) for the anime, Kill la Kill.
 * His helmet-mask is based on not just a plague mask but also a combination of Roadhog's and Crow Reaper's masks.
 * The twin shotgun-revolvers Burning Souls transforms into is based on Reaper's twin guns.
 * If you want to picture what his "expressiveness" looks like, then look no further than Hiroyuki Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventures.