Akiba Tanegashima

Akiba Tanegashima is the eldest son of the Tanegashima Family and a second year in Beacon. He is part of Team SSAN and alludes to Oda Nobunaga.

Appearance
Akiba is a 5'6 tall with long rust-colored hair with red highlights and blood red eyes. He has long bangs on front while on the back is flipped-up, with the rest of his hair tied in a ponytail that reaches his lower back. Around his neck is his trademark long red scarf that reaches down to his thighs, while on his head are his autumn themed closed headphones. At the start of his second year he ordered a new scarf, with this bearing the emblem of his family on both ends. He ties them the same way as his other but with the ends draped in-front of him.

He wears a tight, long-sleeved, orange jacket with two yellow streaks, one diagonally going from the left side of his neck down to his right lower waist, and the other mirroring the left side until it stops and merges with the left streak in the middle of his torso.

Attached to his shoulders are two four-layered shoulderguards attached with a cape that are extends down at one side to a point, making a sort of half triangle shape with its points on his back. Around his waist is a large, golden buckled belt with his family emblem in the middle. On the back of the belt is a harness for his weapon while running its sides are holsters for his grenades. For pants he wears a ballooning hakama reaching only to his shins thanks to his modified, armored greaves.

Whenever disguising as Mr. Fox (which is usually for his detective work), he wears a smiling noh fox mask to cover his face and a closed orange trench coat. He combs his hair to a sweep back style and uses his original plain red scarf, as well as removing his headphones to complete the disguise.

Personality
Akiba is known for being shy and drowsy who hides in the background as Beacon's ghost student. He avoids interacting with people other than the teachers and his teammates, while seeing everybody else as hazy apparitions (figuratively). He may not show it but he can show care towards others, and doesn't mind helping them if asked.

He is quite the lazy bum but has an intellect that rivals his leader's own. He can quite literally cram up one afternoon in a library a day before exams and still get high marks on almost all of the tests. He doesn't like doing any taxing activities like this but, when given little to no choice or if he simply chooses to, he can show a great deal of concentration and focus in dealing with the task at hand. He is also quite the straight-man when it comes to commenting jokes.

When Akiba gets serious however he shows a more cool and calculating side of himself. He is blunt, straight to the point and doesn't like waiting for an answer. He is also very thorough when it comes to doing even a simple task, taking into account every little detail he sees before being satisfied.

He has little care for trivial matters like faunus discrimination or racism, seeing it as "useless bias". He does greatly respect the faunus however, having lived with two faunus families in his manor. He treats them like any other and will defend them if needed. He also shows this level of respect towards his opponents in battle, choosing to fight fairly no matter what the outcome, though he may drop it against foes who show no care for honor or those who endanger others.

After losing his parents he started caring more for life, but ironically cares less of his own. Whether its to sacrifice his reputation or his own life, he will do anything to protect the lives of others. Though his teammates always object at him doing such things, not even his own family can convince him to stop.

Background
Akiba is the firstborn of a noble family in Zen. He lost his parents in a murder incident when he was very young and has since been traumatized. After going through multiple sessions of rehab, and with the help of his grandfather and his two younger sisters, he was able to recover but the trauma had lasting effects on his psyche and personality. He along with his sisters were then taken in by his grandfather.

When he returned to school he was a shell of his former self. Not only was he emotionless but also anti-social. These two traits caused him to graduate with no friends. Fearing for his future his grandfather planned on having a friend's daughter come live at his manor when Akiba enters the local combat school. Though he didn't care and simply ignored her at first, he slowly opened up and soon enough became best friends with her which lasted throughout his time in school.

Having a friend with him when going to the combat school helped in the betterment of his personality. Instead of being anti-social he is instead shy, while being more lax when beside his friends. He didn't treat others with hostility anymore and also began to trust his friends more. He even showed that he can express other emotions besides the poker-face he always wear, albeit are very small.

He also made some new friends as well, like Azsfar Al-Debraan and Copper Ventuo. During his 2nd year in the combat school he was involved in a murder of a classmate. With his family's murder in mind he tried to avenge her by asking the detective at the time, Douglas Moore. He agreed and after helpng him to successfully capture the criminal, was asked to be taught under him which he agreed. As he helped out in these cases with the detective, he was exposed to things like killing and the like. These did have some effect on his personality but he didn't mind the work.

A week before graduating however he was attacked by an assassin who claims to be have killed his parents. Akiba foolishly challenged the assassin despite carrying no weapon and with no help in a blind attempt of vengeance. He failed and almost died if it weren't for his teammates saving him. Though he was cut at the neck, it wasn't deep enough to kill him. He was able to fully recover but at the price of losing his ability to speak.

He didn't care about this, and simply continued on and recovering fast enough just before the graduation ceremony. After the graduation he was sent into training with his grandfather, which was just a distraction so that he can enroll Akiba into Beacon. He found this out eventually and also found out that he was accepted.

Weapon and Abilities
This is Akiba's main weapon. A sniper rifle based on his family's lost heirloom of the same name, the Kannagara is a semi-automatic sniper rifle katana that sports a sleek and modern design with an unique detachable rectangular barrel that is sharpened at its bottom. On the end of the barrel where it detaches from the body is a foldable handle for independent use as a sword, while detached its body is used as a pistol.
 * Kannagara (Separable High-Powered Dust Sniper Katana)

The body's main handle can rotate from 0 to 45 degrees down and has a detachable scope that slides in a railing on the top of the body. Its special modification is its ability to load up like a traditional bolt-action. This enables him to load in special dust rounds that are not stored in the magazine, and can be done while the magazine is still attached to the weapon, but to load one the weapon's breech must be empty.

Due to the weapon's rectangular shape it cannot use conventional rounds but instead special rounds filled with dust that, when fired, causes the dust inside each cartridge to condense into a small, very dense energy ball that can travel faster than conventional ammo and is less affected by outside variables like wind. The size of the cartridges are comparable to that of a .50 cal, except shaped into a thin rectangle that contains dust, with 5 being stored in a magazine clip at a time. There are also cartridges with a rectangular, blade-like tips on them that he calls an armored round that can function as its version of physical ammunition that can pierce through brick walls and 2 inch steel plates with ease and releases its cargo when it makes contact with a hard surface.

Combined, it has a maximum length of approx. 95 cm in length and has a range of approx. 1000 yards and has enough recoil to push Akiba back. When split apart, Kannagara becomes two independent weapons. One is the barrel, which becomes a katana with a length of around 70 cm, while the other is the body, which is now considered a pistol with a firing power akin to a high-calibur magnum. The pistol's range is cut to around 200 meters as its firepower in half. The recoil is significantly less but still enough to sprain his wrist if used incorrectly. The pistol has a larger muzzle than the barrel attached, giving his dust shots a wider area of effect, which is a good compensator.

Although the weapon is formidable, so is the amount of maintenance needed to keep the weapon efficient. The most taxing of these is the cleaning of the barrel which is done every now and then to keep the barrel clear of any obstruction (which takes around 30 minutes to an hour), as well as making ammunition due its unique cartridge.

To increase Akiba's effectiveness against groups of enemies like the Grimm, he created special dust grenades. Capable of blasting an area clean of Grimm or anything unfortunately within its blast range, it is the second go-to gadget in his arsenal. Akiba is able to keep as much as six at maximum, three on each side of his belt. The types of Dust it can store is almost unlimited which include: As well as any combination of the given.
 * Dust Grenades
 * Red Dust
 * Blue Dust
 * Orange Dust
 * Yellow Dust
 * Green Dust

Physical and Mental Prowess
Akiba has a slim and quite flexible body capable of doing acrobatics. He has average strength at best but makes up for being quick to react and agile. He was trained not to be a powerhouse but rather to counter his opponents instead using the the training he learned from his many teachers along with the experiences he gained first-hand.

Unlike most fighters, Akiba applies a more tactical approach in his battles, gaining information of his enemy during battle then using that to gain victory or at least an upper hand. During this time he doesn't engage on his opponent, and if they do he'll simply back off.

He has a relaxed swordstyle that focuses on keeping a certain range with his opponent, close enough for him to attack but far enough to be able to dodge or retreat safely if needed, all while waiting for an opportunity to present itself. He can combine this swordstyle with his judo training, like using the weapon's shape as leverage to incapacitate, grapple, or disarm his opponent.

Intelligence-wise, he is considered as a great tactician. This may be due to most of his family being either generals or tacticians themselves who have either recorded their experiences or told him first-hand, added that he is also a bookworm and loves listening to war stories. He is calm, cool-headed and works best under pressure. He is also very resourceful and creative, finding and using anything around him to benefit his plans.

He is mindful of those around him, and will effectively use the quirks and qualities of others and himself to achieve his goals. He also tries to make sure to alleviate the risk in his plans as much as possible, even if its just a little. Basically, he's very thorough when it comes to planning.

He also has exceptional skills with engineering, both mechanical and electronical, and has repaired his teammates' weapons whenever they get damaged, as well as gadgets like his scroll. He can also cook, and use a variety of musical instruments with brass and string instruments (mostly the violin along with the piano) being his favorites.

Weapon Prowess
Akiba created the blueprint of his weapon to fit his fighting style and preferences.

For melee, the blade of Kannagara is long and gives Akiba the much needed range he needs to hit his foes while keeping himself far enough to dodge them easily.

The weapon's barrel is also the blade itself, with the muzzel being at the flat tip of the blade. The design allows him to use the weapon's recoil to his advantage. He can increase every slash to twice his own strength, and the speed of it is tough to dodge forcing most of his opponents to block it.

For far-range combat the sniper aspect was chosen due to its firepower and far range. Akiba is very conservative and efficient when using the weapon's gun form. Due to the weapon's limited and unique ammo, Akiba has to make every shot count.

This means he fires sparingly and usually takes his time to fire each shot to ensure a hit, and will drop it altogether if he can't. However, there is an exception to this, and that's when he's using the weapon's recoil, which is usually enhanced with wind-dust rounds, to increase his physical attacks or to dash to a certain direction.

When using using Kannagara's pistol mode, he doesn't try to hit his opponent's directly unless using an armored round. He instead uses the gun to fire off dust around, using its effects to confuse, inhibit, trap, or create obstacles that gives him an advantage in combat. If caught in a pinch, he may even use it as a makeshift bludgeoning weapon or to simply intercept/block incoming attacks.

Aspects of the 9-Tailed Fox
Is Akiba's semblance which can be activated by will or by experiencing an intense emotion or resolve. It has two variations that he can use:

Spirit-Body Mix
Akiba's ponytail is covered with a thick dark-red fire creating 1-9 tails (based on his current aura upon activation) that Akiba can command. The tail can take a hit and combine together, be used individually to grab objects or to attack, and gives him more maneuverability and strength, the semblance also pushes his body to its limits, causing him great discomfort and exhaustion (pain even) after prolonged and/or continuous use.

While activated, Akiba is in less control of his emotions and his primal instincts tend to take over if he loses even a moment of concentration. Because of this he uses this variant as a last resort or to quickly take out stronger foes.

During use the tails can be damaged and if cut can take away a great amount of aura depending on how much or how many were cut off, which only makes the variant more dangerouse to use.

Fox Familiar
Akiba can summon a fox made out of a dark-red fire. Like his Spirit-Body Mix, it has multiple tails depending on the amount of aura he has but unlike the first variant, it is not controlled by him directly but by his sub-consciousness. It can go as far as 20 meters away from Akiba and acts as his scout, or supports him in combat.

The familiar responds to Akiba's subconscious needs, which is both good and bad depending on the situation. Since it is essentially Akiba in fox form, it acts and fights in a similar manner to himself, albeit more feral and driven more by his instincts rather than direct thoughts, which may cause it to attack without warning.

Damaging or destroying the familiar will send Akiba pangs of pain that increases depending on the damage taken by his familiar.

Weakness
Akiba is a little shorter than the average teenager and is somewhat frail, but ironically isn't intimidated by opponents larger than himself. He lacks raw physical strength which is needed if you want to knockout an enemy quickly, forcing him to be weapon reliant and think his way out to win a battle. He shows difficulty fighting against agility-focused fighters (like a certain red reaper and ninja) or dust-users like his leader. He may not be susceptible to surprise attacks but he can still be caught off guard and when he does he takes quite a bit of time just to recuperate, making it easy for anyone to capitalize.

His greatest weakness is his bad aura control. Akiba isn't sure how much aura he has, but due to lack of training in it makes any amount of aura he has almost useless other than to shield or heal him. Though there are times he was able to use his aura to augment an attack, its usually by complete instinct and nothing else.

What's worst is that other than basic knowledge from books or words-of-mouth, he is very inexperienced fighting against the Grimm, even in his second year. In fact, it was during his initiation that he first fought against one. He can be easily overpowered or outnumbered by them, forcing him to play back-up shooter, staying far away from the creatures of darkness as much as possible, and only engaging them close range if necessary/forced.

Another main weakness is that he is mute. He can't speak nor make a sound other than the sound of his breathe which is both a good and bad thing depending on the situation, but usually its the latter. He can't give out orders nor warn anyone of impending danger so he needs to find other ways of interact with others. To talk he uses a scroll or hand gestures.

Etymology
Akiba (アキバ) is derived from Akibagahara (秋葉が原) meaning "autumn leaf field". while the word Aki (秋) means autumn.

Tanegashima (種子島) is the name for an island that is part of the Ōsumi Islands. It also refers to the japanese matchlock of the same name. The matchlock's usual colors are maroon or red-orange, which is also where I based his colors off.

Kannagara has mutliple meanings but it can simply mean "The will of the gods or kami." or "Because of being a kami."

Trivia

 * Akiba's character is loosely based on the character Hakumen from the Blazblue series.
 * Akiba's weapon on the other hands is inspired from the Beam Bazooka used by Gundam Vitrue in the series Gundam 00.
 * Akiba has never danced before.
 * Akiba smiles wryly when frightened.
 * This character is owned by Lux Capacitor.