Kaito Hisakawa

"If you're gonna make the jump, then I'll be there to launch you forward."

- Kaito Kaito Hisakawa is a 2nd year student of Beacon Academy and the leader of team KYNT. Known as the "Dark Dragon" due to his ferocious fighting style and assertiveness in combat.

Appearance
Kaito has short, messy black hair with bangs hanging below his eyes, sharp blue eyes, and a light complexion. He is rather tall and has a well built physique despite his appearance.

He dons a blue yukata with white lining and white wave patterns at the bottom and on the sleeves. At the back of his yukata is his emblem. He wears a red obi sash, dark purple pants, and black knee high boots.

Alternate Outfit (Oyabun)
He wears more of a business-like style. He wears long sleeve striped pale blue shirt and wears a blue haori over his shoulders. On the sleeves, it has black wave patterns instead of white. The emblem is also on the back of the haori. He also wears a black tie along with black leather gloves, pants, and brown leather shoes.

Personality
Kaito is a mischievous and extremely lazy person at first glance. He would rather take a day off than actually go to work. Because of his carefree nature, he would often just lie in bed or make inappropriate jokes and deadpan statements. He rather lives by his own rules instead of living by someone else's rules. However, despite this, Kaito is dedicated to his job and tries to help anyone who is need with the best of his abilities.

Despite his extreme laziness and playful nature, he is attentive when needed to be and won't hesitate to attack or cut down his opponents. He is also very observant. He adapts to his surroundings and circumstances easier than most people, almost chameleon-like, allowing him to get along with all kinds of people. He also have a difficulty showing his true emotion, often disguising it under a cold, outer layer. This can lead to him advertently pushes people away despite his best intentions for them. Furthermore, Kaito doesn't want anyone to walk the path he has taken and be stained by blood. He is willing to risk his life for anyone and very caring towards his friends.

Kaito has a love for sweets and his favorite food is mochi. He prefers to have mochi with everything eats. He is also creatively talented in arts and likes to listen to music on his spare time. When he has nothing to do, Kaito would play on his erhu or write songs and stories. It allows him to be in his own world and helps him to relax.

悪魔の嵐 (Devil's Storm)
Kaito's weapon is a full-length shikomizue katana called Devil's Storm. The hilt and the scabbard are made of a black wooden casing, disguising itself from its true nature. It conceals a katana and at the end of the scabbard is a tanto. The blades of the katana and the tanto is made of magnesium alloy and water dust crystal. The alloy made it very lightweight, durable, and sharp enough to cleave through metal and stone. Due to the water dust crystal, it is capable of creating water projectiles with a swing of his sword.

In combat, he primarily uses his katana and his tanto as a secondary weapon or throwing weapon. The water projectiles is weaker than the physical attacks but is capable of blinding an opponent and cause significant damage.

Strengths & Abilities
Kaito was known as the "Dark Dragon" due to his fierce swordplay and assertiveness in battle. He often uses his surrounding to gain an advantage, making him very unpredictable during combat. His biggest weakness is his defense and rage. His semblance makes him defense much weaker, making him susceptible to heavy attacks or sneak attacks. Despite becoming stronger and faster, he is only a berserker who aims to defeat or kill his enemies. This leads to opponents who are equal or stronger than him to defeat him or hold him off.

Immense Strength: Kaito is fairly strong despite his appearance. He can get through large pieces of machinery and drive his sword through a Beringel's skin.

Agility: He is nimble and his reflexes are great enough to dodge, deflecting, or in some instances, throwback projectiles. When he uses his semblance, it enhances his natural speed and reflexes absurdly. Able to close in gaps between him and opponent within a fraction of a second or capable of shattering another sword midswing.

Tremendous Endurance: One of his defining traits is his tremendous physical endurance. In a fight, Kaito fights without consideration of his life, most of the time, allowing him to fight without limits. It's also a testament to how little he values his own life. Due to his own semblance, he developed a high pain tolerance, allowing him to extend the duration of a fight.

Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Kaito tends to wield full length swords one-handed with fair wide but quick chops. Due to his training as an assassin, he can also use a two sword fighting style with his tantō with efficiency. His swordsmanship is rough but far from being unrefined.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: He uses Arnis, a weapon-based fighting styling using sticks, knives, bladed weapons, and various improvised weapons as well as techniques without weapons. It pairs well with his weapon and makes very well use of it in combat. Even when he's disarmed, Kaito is still capable of handling situations with punches and kicks. He regularly uses it with his sword during combat.

Combat Intuition: He is capable of developing adaptive strategies during a fight, often in seconds, to gain an advantage over an opponent. Knows exactly where to land his hits on an opponent. In terms of battle tactics, Kaito is fairly skilled in it.

Weapon Expertise: Though he mainly prefers to make use of his swordsmanship, he is also well-versed in other kinds of weapons from melee to ranged. He can incorporate the use of almost anything he finds in a fight, frequently catching his opponents off guard by using his surroundings.

Besides combat, Kaito is capable of playing an erhu, a two-stringed instrument, to a great degree. He is also an excellent cook as his teacher can't cook himself. He is very observant, able to detect even the smallest changes or details. He is also a good judge of character, able to tell what kind of person is through their eyes.

Semblance: Storm's Embrace
Kaito's semblance, Storm's Embrace, steals the strength and capacity of movement of others while gaining more strength and speed.

It weakens the target by robbing their physical strength and movement through physical contact. It enhances his natural strength and agility. This allows him to close in gaps between him and an opponent or capable of shattering another person's sword midswing. In order to "steal", his aura has to be in contact with another person's aura. For example, it cannot steal another person's strength if it clashes with an offensive or defensive weapon. Kaito must physically touch an opponent's body with his sword or hands. This gives him an advantage in melee fights. His aura also gains a shimmering of some kind flowing through his aura, giving it an appearance similar to rippling water.

There are weaknesses to this semblance. There's a limit to how much he can rob a person's strength, in order to not damage his own body. His sense of pain increases to the amount of physical strength he gains. For example, a light attack that does a minor damage will feel like it would do moderate damage. He has to use his own aura reserves to steal, which weakens the defensive properties of his aura, making his aura reserves to deplete faster if he gets hit. It only affects physical strength and movement as it doesn't absorb another person's aura. This gives him a disadvantage as those who can use ranged can counter his semblance. This semblance can be countered by another's person semblance.

Background
Located in Mistral, Kaito was born in the hidden city of Sakiko. The only child to two loving parents, an architect and a musician. Lived in the lower class of the city, his parents owned a music cafe which was designed and built by his mother. He would visit food vendors and play music for the locals and children. He then later would meet Shouyou Kichiro who was the general of Sakiko and a close friend of his father. He took him under his wing and trained him. During his training, Kaito became friends with three of Shouyou's students. Ume Koybashi, Fenghuang Chun, and Galanthe Xanthe, who hailed from different regions of Mistral.

At the age of sixteen, Kaito became one of the strongest warriors in Sakiko. He became well known for outstanding fighting skill and strength despite being someone who rarely goes into the battlefield. He became known as the "Dark Dragon" due to his outstanding combat skills and assertiveness during a fight. He was almost unbeatable and he was on par with Shouyou.

The city was in civil war between two factions, the current ruler Yamada Clan and the Karasu Clan. This to lead multiple to never ending conflict as the two sides were Due to the anger within the city, the amount of Grimm grew larger and faster. As the city was at its weakest, the Grimm invaded into Sakiko, slaughtering many in the process. Karasu Clan used this to their advantage and killed the members and supporters of the Yamada Clan. These battles lasted for a month until the Karasu came up on top. The city was able to defend and overcome the Grimm threat. However, many lifes were lost on that day including his father whom was killed by the Karasu.

Months after the conflict, Kaito was resentful at the Karasu Clan. He decided to take matters in his own hands. Along with Ume, Fenghuang, and Galanthe who wanted to come with him, they stormed the Karasu Clan's palace and attempted to overthrow the Karasu, slaughtering anyone who got in their way. This ended in failure as they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Kaito, Ume, Fenghuang, and Galanthe were all captured and was put in cells until their execution death. As they were sitting inside cells, Shouyou came to the rescue and decided to help them escape Sakiko.

The four of them managed to escape Sakiko however Shouyou was left behind to defend them so they escape. After losing their and teacher, the four decided to leave their past behind as they went on their separate ways. Kaito and Ume decided to leave Mistral as it was too dangerous to stay. They moved to Vale and were able to find jobs at the Aike Cafe. Kaito became a waiter and musician for the club, becoming one of the poster boys for the cafe.

After a year, Kaito ended up meeting Ozpin in the cafe. Ozpin asked him if he wanted to go to Beacon. At first, he was reluctant as he didn't feel like moving to another place, especially when it's across the ocean. Ume convinced him to go, that someone of his caliber would be wasted in Mistral. Later, he would go to Beacon Academy and became the leader of KYNT. With his newly formed team, they completed multiple missions and became well known during their first year.

Post - Fall of Beacon
Kaito and his team defended the commercial district of Vale during the Grimm breach. Kaito was separated from the rest of his team during the conflict. He was injured and got knocked out by a Beringel. After he woke up, Kaito meets

Team KYNT:
Yorgos Helmuth: One of Kaito's teammates. Kaito gets along with Yorgos as both came from lower class families. He respects Yorgos' and both have complete trust with each other and are close friends. He believes in Yorgos' strength and gets angry if anyone insults him. Yorgos respects him for being able to endure so much yet still has the strength to keep moving forward.

Nina Hai: Kaito and Nina share many of the same ideals. Both want to protect the people they love and willing to sacrifice their lives for them. They are also like oil and water as they tend to argue or making snide comments about each other. This results in frequently clashing as rivals. She would yell at him for being lazy and unproductive. Despite this, Kaito still cares for her and respects her fiery determination and never-give-up attitude. Nina does care for him and willing to step up to protect her leader.

Tuuli Viktoriya: Kaito and Tuuli are close friends. He often sees her as an annoyance but isn't bothered by it. Kaito believes that Tuuli is strong but her head is empty. He is one of the few people who never mistreated her. Tuuli is more playful and energetic when he's around. She highly respects her leader's words and is willing to follow those actions given to her.

Others:
Shouyou Kichiro: After the death of his parents, Shouyou saved Kaito from his old life. He highly respects him to the extend where he would get furious if anyone dirties the name of being a master. He cares for Shouyou and willing to kill to save him.

Ume Kobayashi: Kaito met Ume when Shouyou brought him to the school. Despite being his upperclassmen, she was the same age as him. Together along with Galanthe and Fenghuang, fought against the Karasu Clan. Ume supports him whenever she can as she understands his feelings. She would scold him for being reckless however, she doesn't stop him from doing what he desires. She helped him open up and run his family's business again. Despite arguing about everything, they share a very close bond.

Galanthe Xanthes: Both were disciples of the same teacher and fought in their war against the Karasu. During their days as students, Kaito would be one of the few to keep it up with him while sparring. Even after separating to make his own mercenary group, they attain a close friendship with each other. Galanthe would like to challenge Kaito on his free time, as a sign of respect towards his close friend. Despite becoming a huntsmen, Galanthe still sees him as great warrior and friend.

Fenghuang Chun: Both were disciples of the same teacher and fought against the Karasu. At first, Kaito didn't noticed the fact that Fenghuang was a girl due to her boyish like appearance. Fenghuang disliked him for his laziness but yet still stronger than she was. However as time went on, Fenghuang begins to see what kind of person he was. She admired for his will to survive and courage to keep moving forward.

Trivia

 * In Japanese 久 (hisa) meaning "long time ago" and 川 (kawa) meaning "river, stream".
 * In Japanese 海 (kai) meaning "sea, ocean" combined with 斗 (to), which refers to a Chinese constellation, or 翔 (to) meaning "soar, fly."
 * The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a Southern Fiddle, and sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle.
 * His semblance represents an storm. His aura's appearance alludes to the sea and it's ability alludes to hurricanes.
 * Shoka Sonjuku or 'private academy under the pine trees' is based on the real Shoka Sonjuku, a private school for young people founded by Yoshida Shoin