Individual

Character's full name: Niko Kobayashi
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Melissa Kobayashi, Ms. Kobayashi, Nik, Crimson Samurai
Gender: Female
Age: 713 [Updated: 4/12/2023] (Looks 25 years old)
Date of Birth: February 14, 1310
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Bronx, New York
Nationality: American (formerly: Japan, England, Sweden)
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Japanese

Appearance

Hair color and style: Long, straight and black. Hangs down past her shoulders only a small bit. When conducting business she will normally wear her hair either down and flowing or up in a tight bun. When out in the field, she will often slip her hair into a ponytail, or into what others have dubbed, her warhawk.
Skin Tone: Soft and light colored. Pale as a new moon.
Eye Color: Deep and dark brown, but when looked upon closely, there is a slight tinge of red.
Height: 5’8 but she can appear as tall as 6’0 when wearing her armor.
Build: Lean and muscular. She has the body of an Olympic level athlete who has spent her life training.
Visible mutation: None...unless you count her eternal youth.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: There is a set of three deep scars on her stomach, around her belly button. The scars are varying in age, but all appear extremely old.
Other features: There is a slight tinge of red around her irises and she smells of cherry blossoms.

Everyday clothing style: Niko continuously adapts with the times. These days her more outgoing persona enjoy tight fitting clothing, yoga pants, skirts, bright tops. But when by herself she has no problem just relaxing in jeans and t-shirts or loose top.
Uniform: A crimson red suit of samurai armor that she claimed from her fallen husband so many centuries ago. It is older, slightly battered, but seeming still can take a lot of damage.
Sleepwear: Pajamas, Large shirt and underwear, just depends on what she’s feeling.
Miscellaneous clothing: She wears a necklace that her husband gave her of a japanese coin with a cord of leather moving through the center.

Character

Personality: Niko is an interesting sort of woman. As strange as it seems, she has a personality for damn near every occasion. Having lived as long as she has had to reinvent herself a variety of times as clearly the same woman cannot look as she does and lived for as long. Because of this, it is hard to pin down her true personality and it takes someone of true fortitude to really know who she is.

Currently, on the outside, Niko goes by the name of Melissa Kobayashi, the granddaughter of the book publisher Hiro Kobayashi. She is young, sweet, throws magnificent parties but is able to be professional with work. Many suitors have fought for her hand, though it seems she has very little interest in settling down. Attention is not something she strives for but happens to follow her around when she least wants it to. So far she has learned to live with it, simply smiling sweetly before attempting to find some form of privacy.

However this isn’t the true Niko Kobayashi. She is very quiet. Very down to earth but she is also a very weary soul. She has lived far longer than she should but she is honor bound to her promise to find the Man of Shadows and stomp down evil wherever she comes across it. With a willpower as firm as steel, honor bound, and true, she is someone you definitely do not want to cross. She has crossed oceans of time to stomp one creature -- imagine what she’ll do to someone who crosses her?

Hobbies/ Interests: There are too many to count. Niko has spent centuries tracking down the creature that killed her family and that as required her to spend a vast amount of time learning trades, blending in with the world, and adopting over personalities. But there are a few hobbies that have managed to stick around. These include:

• Hunting
• Fishing
• Swimming
• Combat Training
• Stage Make Up
• Poetry
• Forgery
• Painting
• Horseback Riding
• Blogging
• Reading
• Sword training
• Archery
• Extreme Couponing (don’t judge >.>)

Job or part time job and description: Currently: She is a “trust fund” baby, the granddaughter of the head of Red Pearl Publishing. The reality is that she makes all the decisions through a scapegoat and just uses the money to live her life and feed her obsession for hunting down the Man of Shadows.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns:

• Niko’s greatest fear is dying before she can complete her vow of stopping the Man of Shadows. He took everything from her, on more than one occasion, but she has never been able to best him. She fears she will only continue to fail until she can no longer persist.
• She fears forgetting her mission. Every time she has to force herself to rebond to another sword and resurrects, she loses a piece of her memory. She still cannot fully remember her parents names and she is forgetting her siblings, but she can still see them as foggy memories. It scares her the idea of forgetting them entirely.
• Flying. She will never get used to that. Give her a car, a train, a boat, hell, walking she would even prefer. But flying is something she tries to not do if she can avoid it.

Special talents: She is a skilled painter, but not because of her past. She actually was one of those few people who remembers when Bob Ross started his program and used to follow his program closely. Because of that she takes great pleasure in painting landscapes. She also is a bit of a car nut and loves the classic cars she used to drive in the 50s.

Morality

Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: True Neutral - Niko believes herself to be good but she will do whatever it takes to uphold her creed to destroy the Man of Shadows.

Mutations

Mutation description:
Life Force Infusion and Manipulation - Life force is the way. Niko has been gifted with the ability to absorb and manipulate the life essence of others -- but only by spilling their blood. In a way she is a sort of essence vampire. She must spill the blood of the guilty (or those she finds guilty) and add their lifeforce to her own. In doing so, she is able to manipulate that life force in a variety of ways, whether it’s strengthening her body, her armor, or her sword. But such abilities require a focus and for Niko, it comes in the form of her sword, Juuchi Yosamu (translation: 10,000 Cold Nights). And though her gifts are extremely powerful, they do have their ups and downs.

Strengths:
To draw in the life force of others, Niko must draw their blood. When she does that, when their blood spills upon her sword, her armor, or her flesh, it will be added to her own life force. From there, she can then push that energy into one of three aspects of herself that make her a most formidable adversary and a scourge to the criminals of the world.

• Life of the Body: Niko will always absorb a bit of the life force she gathers to herself. The added benefit is that it keeps her young, beautiful, and physically fit. She can also spend a bit more of the life force into strengthening her body, putting her at Olympic levels of fitness. In this state she is able to lift more and run faster.
• Life of the Armor: In a pinch, Niko can push some of her life force into her samurai armor. This will make it gleam like a silver moon and strengthens it to the point that she can stop cars or even deflect bullets. But it only works on the armor. If there is an explosion or a piercing weapon that makes it through her armor, into a joint or gap, she will still he harmed.
• Life of the Sword: The most important aspect is her ability to add life force to her sword. This will cause the sword to shimmer like gold. In this state it can cut through most anything. However, the hardier the object, the longer it will take to cut through, but it will cut.

Weaknesses and Limitations:

• Life for a Life: For her abilities to work, Niko needs to take the life of another. She has focused her attention on the criminals of the world, making them all pay for what she suffered in her youth so many centuries ago. However, given how the world has evolved, it makes it harder and harder to get away with such crimes. If she slips up, she could easily find herself on the wrong side of the law.
• There’s Always a Drawback: Despite the variety of ways she can use her life force, there is always a means by which there is a work around. Buffing her body will only make her so strong. She is still susceptible to piercing weapons, bullets, explosions, etc. Her armor is only so strong and there are gaps in certain parts. If those are target, she could easily be harmed or rendered incapacitated. Lastly, her sword allows her to cut through anything but the blade itself still must obey physics. The sword will take longer to cut through a block of steel than it would through a block of wood. And, being disarmed, the sword will be of no use to her.
• Way of the Sword: The most drastic aspect of her abilities is her need of her sword and what happens if she is parted with it. Her sword is her focus and allows her to focus her mutation to draw life force from others. Because of how much blood she has spilled over the years, the sword and herself have formed a link; a link that dictates if the sword itself is damaged beyond repair, she must replace it otherwise she will succumb to the centuries she has held back. She will have 24 hours to procure another sword and commit a ritualistic seppuku. This will cause her effectively “die” but is then allowed to be reborn as her young, beautiful self with a new sword. However, should the sword and her be parted, and she is unable to do her ritual for 24 hours, she will die.
• Lost Memories: Niko has lived an extremely long life and, in that time, has lost her sword very few times. However, those few times have everlasting effects. When she commits her ritual and returns to life, part of her memory becomes extremely foggy. She has only had to commit this act two or three times since she’s walked the earth, but it has left some of her earliest memories as mere whispers. Therefore she tries to take great care of her sword, lest she forget her mission entirely.
  

Physical Abilities

General Physical Capabilities: Is a finely honed athlete. She has the strength, speed, and flexibility of someone who has trained their entire life. Her reflexes are sharp as it has aided her throughout the years in fighting a variety of villains (both powered and not).
Fighting Style: Niko has trained in a variety of fighting styles over the years. She has mastered many forms, including: Fencing, Swordplay, Bare-knuckle Boxing, Close Quarters Combat, Jeet Kune Do, Aikido, Zui quan (Drunken boxing), and Ninjutsu.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons:
Pros:
1.) Having such a wide variety of martial skills allows her to compensate for most any situation.
2.) She has a wealth of combat knowledge which has aided her in her journey to destroy the Man of Shadows.

Cons:
1.) There is always someone who will be better than her. Just because she has this variety of skills, doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t trained harder and longer than her.
2.) She can be physically overpowered. If she goes up against someone who is just stronger than her, she will fail.

History Of Your Character
The life of Niko Kobayashi is as tragic as it is old. The most important thing to note is that Niko is far older than she appears. Though she looks to be no more than 25 years old, she is, in reality, over 700 years old. But while many would want to live such an extended life, Niko will be the first to tell you that it is not all it is cracked up to be. And if it weren’t for her sworn duty, she would have laid down her sword long ago.

14th Century
It all began in 1310. Niko was born to a simple family, a farmer and his beautiful wife, people whose faces she can barely recall anymore. She had one sister, Himari, and one brother, Kosuke, and from what she can recall, they lived a happy life. It was harsh. Everyone had to help out with the farm but they managed to make do and it was a good and honest existence. But things would eventually change when Niko entered her twenties during the beginning of the Genko War.

There was a grasp for power and her world was split in two. War spilled out across the country side as a civil war broke out over a coup for power and it wasn’t only the ruling class the felt it, the outlining villages did as well; Niko’s village being one of them.

War swept through. She watched in horror as family members were cut down, one by one, though she honestly can’t remember in which order anymore. In the end, Niko was left with only herself and a band of murderers looking to sate desire.

It was a harsh struggle but Niko managed to break away, pulling away the sword of one of her attackers and driving it into his chest. As his blood spilled down the blade and over her hands, she felt a swell of power course through her. Eyes flashing red, she launched herself into battle, moving faster, striking harder than any of her attackers. In the end, only Niko was left standing in the shambles of her home. But she could recall, before the bloodlust took over, that one of the men, the ringleader, had a strange grin and a look of shadows trapped within his eyes. It was only when she cut him down did the shadows vanish and she was left alone.

Staggering away, unsure of what she had done, she sought to find a home elsewhere.

Niko could scarcely understand what happened to her until she came upon a temple and spoke with one of the holy men. From what she described, she was told that she had been inhabited by a demon and that she must swear her life to the gods to make up for her crimes. That was the most they could say before turning her away.

From there, Niko wandered. There were some that tried to take advantage of her, others who offered her shelter, but it was when she came across another gang of bandits that she would meet the next stage of her life.

Haru Kobayashi, a samurai and general for one of the warring families came across Niko as she was defending herself. He marveled at her skill with a sword and jumped in to aid her in battling her enemies. When the last fell, he offered her shelter and a space to heal. Upon learning she had no family anymore, he made it his mission to give her a better life. He trained her in the arts of a samurai and, before long, the two of them quickly fell in love. But it was a love that wouldn’t last.

A man. A man of shadows, one who spurred on the war between the clans snuck into the Kobayashi household and possessed one of the servants and ran Haru through with his own sword. Niko was shocked and quickly dispatched the servant, only to watch the Man of Shadows flee from her body before escaping. He was the same specter she saw that attacked her village. She vowed revenge against that “demon” and would follow him onto the ends of the earth if she had to.

15th Century
Leaves Japan and tracks the Man of Shadows to the kingdom of Champa. Niko confronts the demon but falls when he manages to break her sword. Thinking she has failed, she uses another sword to allow her to die with honor. However, she discovers that doing so will rejuvinate her and help her bond with a new sword. She eventually loses him when the Vietnamese king, Le Thanh Tong, conquers the land.

16th Century
Witness’s the plague sweeping through England. Niko sweeps the land, unaffected, tracking the Man of Shadows. Loses him again. She forges documents labeling herself as a traveling noblewoman to keep her safe.

17th Century
In the midst of the English Civil War, Niko flees the country in search of the Man of Shadows but seemingly loses sight of him and instead moves back to mainland Europe. Upon her arrival she immediately discovers him again and the two battle, which again ends with the destruction of her sword. She once again brings herself back into battle with a new blade.

18th Century
Niko has settled in Switzerland, having lost track of her prey. Here she buys and invests in the Karlsson Publishing House but continues to keep an eye out.

19th Century
After hearing news of war breaking out in the Americas, Niko takes up her blade again and travels across the sea. There she finds her target again and nearly ends him when the two are separated by cannon fire. She escapes and begins to plant herself into the new “American” way of life.

20th Century
Niko moves to Canada when Japanese Internment camps started to sprout up across the country. This will be the third time that Niko breaks her sword in battle with a superpowered individual. Again she is forced to forge another bond.

21st Century
This most current century is still very youthful to Niko but certainly has allowed her to refine her processes. After leaving Canada, she returns to the U.S.A. knowing full well that the Man of Shadows is still in this country full of development and strife. Still a leading name in the publishing world, she moves the Karlsson Publishing House operations to Japan and opens up offices in New York City, under its new name: Red Pearl Publishing.

Niko has never let on that she is a mutant, thus when the Registration Act of 2007 came into being, she remained in hiding and kept her activities to a minimum, just allowing her to do what was necessary to continue her work.

Living through the attack of New York by living trees, the rise of the M.E.T.A.bots, and the rift between worlds, Niko has learned a variety of things. She keeps herself as careful as possible, hiding her actions but admittedly with the advent of personal cameras on everyone’s cell phones, it has become harder to do what she needs to do.

Worst of all, the Man of Shadows is back. Caught on a video uploaded to social media, Niko knows the creature still persists to this day. So she will uphold her mantle and do whatever it takes to finally bring him to his inevitable end. No matter the cost.

Roleplay
What’s your OOC alias?: Jorge
Where did you learn about this site?: That’s cute. To think there was a time before I knew about this site. Silly.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Jorge Cervantes , Belladonna Honey , Akshay Malik , Booker B. Bookman , Celeste Teal , Charles Red Fish
Sample RP:
He ran. He ran as fast and as hard as his lungs could carry him. James wasn’t prepared for this. When he agreed to step out tonight his idea for a “quick job” was just knocking over a liquor store for a few hundred and running off to some secret place to freely spend. But Hector. Goddamn Hector! He had to put shells in the damn shotgun! What was he thinking! They had argued about this but Hector was too stubborn, believing that if he didn’t, that would be the one day that they were unprepared.

And now look what happened. The liquor store owner, a nice old man, lie dead because Hector got spooked. Heard a noise, jumped, and squeezed the trigger. Now they were both dead. How? That was the craziest part. Since when were there samurais in New York City?!

James gasped for breath. As soon as he ran from the shop he bolted down the street and refused to stop. Who knows how many blocks he ran before he rounded another corner and stumbled into a shady alley. He was breathing hard, his lungs burning, his eyes feeling like sandpaper. He hadn’t blinked since he saw it, had he? Hadn’t blinked since he was arguing with Hector and saw that sword pierce his chest. There was a shower of red that James had to wipe from his eyes. It was only when he did that he noticed the towering, red silhouette standing behind Hector, lifting him up, impaled on a sword.

He took one look and ran. It was a samurai. It was a F***ING SAMURAI! He had seen enough martial arts movies to know when he saw one but...why? HOW?!

Leaning against the brick wall, he tried to calm his breathing but his chest just wouldn’t stop burning. Every noise startled him: rats scampering, distant sirens, the soaring of planes high above. He shook his head. Home. He just needed to get ho--

VRRROOOOMMM!!

A car sped by. He squeaked and jumped backwards, crawling further and further back into the alley. Here. He would just way here until things finally died down. It was nice here. It was dark, it was safe, it was--

thud...

His back pressed against something. Gulping, he very slowly turned around and spied that he had backed into a shape. Large, imposing, angular, he was about to stammer a question to ask what it was when a passing victim across the street illuminated the alley and he saw a demon faceplate stare down at him.

“OH GAWD!” He shrieked. “NO I...I--URK!!!”

***

It wasn’t hard to track him. He ran like a flailing fool, fear guiding his movement. How long had she hunted people like him? How predictable were they? In this case it was easy to tell as he ran for the first dark and shadowy alley he could find. The only way he felt safe, apparently. Taking the back alley would be simple enough, chase him down from the other side of the building, breath silent, footfalls barely noticeable in the din of the city. When he stopped she was already there, advancing on him from behind.

Murderer. Murderers couldn’t be tolerated.

His fear drew him in, embracing the darkness that she had accepted long before even his ancestors were alive. When he bumped into her, a passing vehicle briefly illuminated her face, demon’s snarl enough to send his panic into a boil. It was a quick movement after that.

The song of her blade cut through the air. The point driven deep. The crimson spilling across metal. It took seconds. Stepping away from his fallen body, the Crimson Samurai held the blade up and breathed a deep sigh. Blood swirled and faded, evaporated into thin smoke which she breathed in. Before long, the blood was gone and the sword was sheathed.

”Guilty,” she spat at the fallen man. Then, turning, she slipped back into the shadows and back towards the waiting motorcycle. She was done for the night. Justice had been served for that liquor store owner. Her own? Well, she was one step closer.

Awesome! Looks like everything got on the profile that needed to make it. You are approved!

You have officially been approved for posting.

Start by posting a link to your character profile to the Taken Mutation List post so we don't forget to add you.

After posting your profile, be sure to include the link to your app in your profile details so people can reference it from your mini-profile.

If you would like graphics for your Profile Picture, Cover Picture, or you want a Signature under your posts, sizes and instructions are all available in the Avatar/Sig Size & Coding Guide.

Then, you can make a claim on the Who's Who Directory, or, if you plan to use a faceclaim (which is completely optional), be sure to check out our Faceclaim/Playby List.

After that, feel free to start your own thread or join any open thread on the boards. We advertise for threads on the RP Requests & Plot Ideas board or kick ideas around on the #plotting_general channel in the MRO Discord.