Takoizu Hargrove

"I don't live for myself. I live cause my team and family need me."

- Takoizu Hargrove

Appearance
Takoizu is a young male with slightly below average height and an average build. The top half of his outfit consists of a light green hoodie that he leaves unzipped and a green T-shirt. As for the lower half, he wears teal jeans with a yellow belt, along with ammo pouches on the sides of his waist.

Takoizu wears a violet cut-off on his right hand and his left hand is wrapped in boxing tape. On his face, Takoizu bears a pair of turquoise, transition glasses. His hair is turquoise, of medium length, and has a loose strand at the top. For footwear, Takoizu wears a pair of turquoise skater shoes. He has a fair complexion and brown eyes. However, when using his semblance, it has been noted that his right eye color changes to white.

Personality
Takoizu is sociable and very caring. He enjoys the company of others and is willing to help if he is needed. In fact, if needed, he is willing to sacrifice his own well-being to help others. If he indirectly causes something bad, Trace would try to take the blame for most of the conseqences. Although Trace is very willing to offer help, he is very reluctant to offers of help from others.

Takoizu's caring nature comes from the guilt of leaving his family for the sole reason of become a huntsman. After causing his sister to cry, he figured that his selfishness would only hurt others. He decided to change from that point on.

When it comes to the battlefield, Takoizu be comes extremely focused and bears a grin. He will try to take out his opponents as efficently as possible and will not rush in hasty actions. However, Takoizu struggles when he is facing 5 or more opponents by himself.

Takoizu is very adept at making weapons and armor. Apart from his crafting skills, he does not do too well when it comes to academics. After recieving some help from Blythe Vigile, he has been doing better academically.

History
Trace comes from a loving family of four in Northern Cordillera. His family includes his father, mother, and little sister Emily. Trace has lived happily with his family for quite some time. However, a few days after his 13th birthday, Trace told his father about his dream of becoming a Huntsman. Trace's father disagreed with his decision, stating that it was "too dangerous" and because he wanted Trace to inherit the family weapon forge. Pretending that he understood his father's decision, Trace snuck out of the house the following night. He planned to go to a dojo located on the far southern side of Cordillera to receive training. During his stay at the dojo, his master told him to make himself anew by changing Trace's name to "Takoizu" because of his turquoise hair.

After nearly a year of training at the dojo, Takoizu became very adept at Kenjutsu and has learned Karate to some extent. Though he had learned all his master had to teach, he had not learned enough to become a Huntsman. Takoizu's master sent him on a ship to Vale so that he could apply to Signal and learn more. Takoizu still had two weeks before Signal's school year would begin, so his master gave him some Lien to buy food. On his 2nd week in Vale, Takoizu ran into girl of his age who was being harassed in an allyway. After saving her life, she introduced herself to Takoizu. Her name was Blythe Vigile, she's 14 and an applicant of Signal. Since he was nearly out of Lien, Takoizu didn't really have a place to stay at that point. So he boldly asked Blythe if he could stay at her place. Blythe said yes, under the condition that he treats her to ice cream.

In the single week they spent together, Blythe and Takoizu became great friends. Takoizu learned that he was a unique person to Blythe by her mother. Her mother told him about Blythe's social tendencies: Blythe is only happy and carefree around people she's opened up to. On top of that, it usually takes her a few months to open up to someone, but it only took Blythe a day to open up to Takoizu. Knowing this, Takoizu promised to stay Blythe's friend no matter what. Though, Blythe's mother secretly hoped for more.

A little over two years later, Takoizu and Blythe were both in their 3rd semester at Signal. They were inseperable classmates, mostly beacuse of the fact that they've sat next to each other in every class since the start of Signal. One day during that semester, something was confessed. The very thing confessed, was Blythe's love for Takoizu. It was the day Blythe's mother had secretly hoped for, but Takoizu did not fufill that role. He turned down Blythe, but they still kept their friendship status. But things wern't exactly the same afterwards.

Full story: Liberally Astray

Weapons and Abilities
Takoizu has a whole set of various equipment. From his primary weapon, to his custom-made armlets.

Weapon:
Sluice Fusilade - Longsword Assault Rifle: A short to long range killer hand-crafted by yours truly. In gun form, the blade folds back and the stock at the bottom of the hilt unfolds. In addition, the weapon also has an adjustable short-long range optic as a part of the weapon's longsword's right handguard. The assault rifle form of the weapon shoots up to thirty 5.56 rounds in either semi-auto or full-auto firing speeds. In semi-auto firing speed, Sluice Fusilade is accurate enough to be used as a sniper, with the help of the optic, that is. The gun's grip and trigger are located on the handguard opposite to the optics. There's also a button on the hilt that allows Trace to fire while the weapon is in it's melee form. (The weapon's magazine is located in its hilt) The melee form of the weapon is a typical one-two handed longsword. Sluce Fusilade's blade is turqoise and the handle is dark blue with an accent of yellow.

Sanative Ward - Armlets: A pair of armets that Takoizu wears on both of his forearms to protect him. Forged with his own hands, they have a light green, titanium inner and outer layer with metal bar and foam ribbing inbetween. They are strong enough to protect from the sharpest blades and indirect strikes from some blunt weapons.

Along with Sanative Ward, Takoizu wears boxing tape on his left hand to protect his knuckles.

Ability:
Takoizu has above average endurance, speed, and fighting prowess. He also has an extensive knowledge of Karate which makes up half of his combat style. Takoizu's fighting style and Semblance helps prevent him from taking hits. Takoizu is also very observing of his opponent, he can read their moves, weaknesses, and also defend well against trick/counter attacks.

Takoizu has three distinctive fighting stances. Defensive, Offensive, and All-around.

The Defensive stance starts out with Takoizu turning towards his left side, positioning his left arm to defend with Sanative Ward. This stance allows Takoizu to find openings and counter-attack if his opponent is too fast. The Defensive stance is only used if Takoizu is sure that the enemy will score the first hit and/or if the enemy is fast.

The Offensive stance starts out with Takoizu turning to his right side, readying his right arm to attack with Sluice Fusilade. This stance allows Takoizu to gain the upperhand if he cannot defend against attacks but dodge them. This stance is used if Takoizu is sure that he can score the first strike and/or if the enemy is slow but powerful.

The All-around stance starts off with Takoizu gripping both of his hands on Sluice Fusilade and him facing forward. This stance is used if Takoizu can't determine whether or not his opponent will attack first or if he will. If the enemy attacks first, Takoizu will dodge or move his left arm slightly to block with Sanative Ward. If Takoizu sees an opening, he will strike first with Sluice Fusilade.

Takoizu's Semblance is Dilatory Insight. When Takoizu closes his left eye, a small glyph appears under him. This glyph slows down his perception of time so that everything (including himself) appears to be moving in slow-motion. His Semblance can only be used for 10 seconds (in unaffected time) at time. During those 10 seconds, Takoizu can choose to deactivate his Semblance by opening his left eye. He must wait 2 seconds for every second he spends in Dilatory Insight. Takoizu uses his Semblance mainly when shooting to improve his accuracy or to see oncoming attacks during fast-paced melee combat.

Overall (ACES):
My characters' effectiveness in battle are judged by a system called "The ACES of Hunting". A stands for Aura, C stands for Combat, E stands for Endurance, and S stands for Speed. All of which are measured by 10 points, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. For more information, check this page: http://rwby.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Devenn.eng/RWBY_Game_idea

Aura:  5/10

Takoizu's Aura is average. He can take the same amount of hits as a normal person.

 Combat:  10/10

Takoizu is very exeptional in combat. He excells in both ranged and melee combat. He very accurate with most firearms and excells in Kenjutsu. In fact, Takoizu has developed 3 seperate stances to better suit his fighting style. In addition to that, Takoizu also mixes Karate into his fighting style. Defensively, Takoizu can easily dodge, parry, and block most attacks, which helps his average Aura. As for examining his opponents, Takoizu can read moves, weaknesses, and defend well against trick/counter attacks. However, Takoizu has a hard time fighting 5 or more opponents on his own, due to the amount of concentration needed.

 Endurance:  8/10

Takoizu has a well above-average amount of stamina. He can last up to 48 minutes in non-stop combat before starting to tire.

 Speed:  7/10

Takoizu can run faster than a majority of the crowd, as well as outmaneuver them. It is also noted that Takoizu can avoid bullets with his speed, as well as dodge them with the help of his Semblance. Even still, he is not the fastest. He has a bit of trouble with opponents of greater speed.

 Total (Average):  7/10

Relationships

 * Blythe Vigile is Takoizu's best friend. Although she does have romantic feelings for him, Takoizu respects these feelings and continues to be her friend. Takoizu feels as if Blythe is another part of him because she is the cause of most of his happiness. They have a past that wasn't really noteworthy: she was the shy girl that sat behind him in their 5th grade class, she never talked to him and he didn't either. Though, that was when Blythe developed her feelings for him.
 * Takoizu goes out of his way to comfort Erhardte Rache whenever he feels sad. Erhardte's past also serves as a constant reminder to Takoizu that some people's past are far worse than yours.
 * Takoizu serves a corrector if Waleria Dawber steps out of line with making fun of someone. He also holds suspicion about Waleria's origins, though he keeps away if he finds himself drawing too close.

Misc

 * Takoizu adores combat, this is shown by the grin he makes during battle.
 * Takoizu may or may not be in love Blythe.
 * From his time at Signal, Takoizu has also heard about the Wrath technique, one of the 7 Deadly Sins.

Trivia

 * Takoizu's personality is based off of an elevated version of my care for others.
 * The Sanative part of Sanative Ward came from the idea that plant (green) plus water (blue) equals growth. (Turqoise)
 * Sluice Fusilade was based off a Nerf Marauder Longsword.
 * Dilatory Insight came from Bloodrayne 2's Dilated Perception.
 * Takoizu's color Turqoise comes from his restorative, caring nature, and his name meaning Turquoise in Japanese.