| By Wingstrike | Part of the A New Frontier continuity. |
| "We need to inspire people so that they can change for the better, not scare them into falling in line. Otherwise our work will be for nothing." |
| — Akane defending her refusal to kill. |
Akane is a member of Faceless and merchant of the Red Raven Shipping company. Initially she came to Republic City to find new potential trading partners, but finds herself becoming involved with Faceless by accident. She quickly decided that Faceless could be a force for positive change in the city and continued to fight alongside them during her time in Republic City, eventually becoming one of the group's lieutenants.
History[]
Born to Hayate and Izumi, fire bending sailors who made up part of a merchant fleet who traded with the other nations. When within the Fire Nation Akane's family lived on a small town on one of the outlying islands. Both of her parents sailed together, with Hayate as captain and Izumi as his trusted first officer, travelling around the world to visit various large trading hubs. Akane is the eldest of two twin sisters and formed a strong bond with her sister, Mizu, from birth.
Akane demonstrates a strange fondness for fire even as a baby, becoming lost in the dancing flicker whenever she started staring at a flame. Eventually she demonstrated her first ability to fire bend at the age of six when out on deck with the rest of the crew who were showing off fire bending tricks, throwing a small arc prompted immediate cheers from the crew who hadn't expected her to show any skills yet.
Both parents helped train Akane and Mizu in their fire bending; their father focused on martial arts and physical training while their mother taught them about spirituality and balance, teaching them to always maintain a sense of right and wrong and to stand up for her ideals. Unlike traditional firebenders, many sailors practiced a more fluid form Firebending known as Ocean Style Firebending. Compared to its predecessor, Ocean Style contains several elements inspired by Waterbending, and is designed to be more adaptive against surprise changes. Akane learned quickly, keeping her promise to her mother to never abuse her abilities while demonstrating a potent, if raw, talent.
Akane and her sister learnt many skills from the crew on their journeys back and forth between the Fire Nation and their various destinations. Akane demonstrated a particular knack for handling boats of various size, navigation and exploration while Mizu proved to be the better strategist and talented at fine control over her fire bending, using it to weld or cut metal as needed. While Akane almost never managed to beat beaten her sister in Pai Sho, she reigned supreme in duelling.
As she became older her parents gave both sisters each a small ship to sail within the fleet, ferrying parts and supplies between the larger ships. Clearly inheriting her mother's looks it was quite clear that both of her parents had passed down their sense of adventure and exploration to Akane, often exploring the ports they arrived in for hours on end. Eventually Akane left the trading fleet to explore Republic City and potentially find new trading contacts at the age of 23, promising to come back one day while leaving her ship in the hands of Mizu.
At first Akane started by sticking around the docks as she got her bearings of the city, getting to know several dock workers who were happy to make her acquaintance and seemed to be quick on picking up local gossip. During one evening exploring the downtown area for the first time, Akane found herself accidentally in a more disreputable part of the city, attracting the attention of several thugs who tried to intimidate her into giving them her money. Despite being outnumbered, Akane was prepared to put up a fight rather than give up or run and quickly ignited a flame in each hand, readying herself to take as many out as she could. However, before she could act she saw a group of masked figures drop down from the rooftops, surrounding her but facing the thugs. Without warning the new group threw the first punch, and quickly left the thugs in a dishevelled heap before Akane had a chance to react, then scattering as quickly as they had appeared. Left more confused than anything, Akane returned to her dockworker friends and asked them if her story sounded familiar. Much to her surprise her friends told her of the vigilante group that had formed in Republic City as of late, relying on the cover of night to strike out and then fade as quickly again. None had ever managed to get a clear look at any of them, living up to the group's name, Faceless.
Intrigued, Akane endeavoured to find out more, her instincts telling her that a group like Faceless were sorely needed, having seen how the police struggled to maintain law and order. With no obvious way to find them she decided to begin by stalking the rooftops downtown, spending several nights crossing the city from above in an attempt to find them. Eventually she got lucky and crossed paths with them again on a dark evening, finally meeting Faceless after chasing them for several blocks. Much to her frustration though it seemed that they had spotted her days ago, and had ensured to stay out of Akane's sight while they figured out who she was. Satisfied that she was unlikely to be working for the police, Faceless decided to humour her and were willing to hear her out. After getting over the initial surprise, Akane asked to join the group, having seen first hand how bad things were getting in the City, and the police's difficulty in maintaining control. The group seemed somewhat hesitant at first, despite one of their members going toe-to-toe with her to test her abilities, however, it wasn't until after she began making pointed questions about how Faceless were funded that they began to take interest. Akane proposed that she could use her mercantile experience to help provide money without raising too many questions, a prospect that seemed to pique their interest considerably, though they still didn't give her an answer there and then, choosing to deliberate on the issue first.
A few days later Akane found a note on the balcony of her apartment, containing an address to meet at. This time upon her arrival the group unmasked themselves, having decided to accept her proposal and welcomed her into the group as a fully fledged vigilante. With some aid of Faceless' more technically-skilled members she created a new outfit to help conceal her identity, while being practical enough to fight in. Through training and experience she honed her fighting skills, becoming particularly adept at urban combat and free-running.
Eventually Akane's position within Faceless rose as she continued to work alongside them, placing her as a lieutenant alongside several other veteran members of the group. While she never agreed with way of doing things outright, Akane remained a strong supporter of them in light of the continued inability of the police to regain order.
Personality[]
Determined, intelligent and friendly, Akane has a strong drive to see new sights and meet new people. She is at times quite headstrong and unafraid to get herself neck-deep into a brawl, though usually only after talking has failed. On more than one occasion she has demonstrated enough self-confidence to speak her mind regardless of the consequences, regardless if the opinion is not something the other party wants to hear. In more extreme cases she has even been known to deck people who have become trapped in their own self-pity and hysteria as a means to snap them out of it, but often reserves it for closer friends who will better understand the intent. At times she's been known to quote various writers, either as commentary in the situation or as a source of advice.
Akane is quick to step into matters where she feels people are being treated unfairly, feeling that the philosophy of unity set by the Fire Nation gives everyone a voice. Even in dangerous situations she's unlikely to be dissuaded and keeps fighting on for as long as she can. Despite the fierce determination she portrays, Akane is somewhat prone to looking out for others more than herself, risking burning herself out both physically and mentally in spite of her good-natured intentions. Additionally she doesn't like being underground for very long and suffers from mild claustrophobia after being used to a wide open ocean for practically all her life.
At her heart Akane is still a merchant and is still interested in the prospect of money or other lucrative deals, continuing to seek out new trading partners during her time in Republic City. She also believes that people should be allowed to follow their own path in life, even if the consequences of it aren't what they expected, as such Akane holds a strong grudge against the Rebellion and their ideals, comparing them more to a dogmatic cult. However, even if other individuals have crossed several lines in her book, she outright refuses to kill in the belief that doing so is an unforgivable action.
Akane has a particular flair for the dramatic, especially in fights. When moving around rapidly she will often produce fire arcs from her hands, creating glowing trails to draw the opponent's attention. This tendency caused her father's crew to give her the nickname "Firedancer". Her outfit worn while on patrol with Faceless is similarly themed, featuring items such as decorative sashes, belts and light leather armguards, though in darker colours to make it harder to spot at night.
Due to her reluctance to kill, Akane eventually learned how to channel her enhanced fire and jet propulsion techniques into unarmed combat, using it to drastically increase the force of physical attacks to incapacitate opponents. Typically she avoids enemy attacks for as long as possible in order to get into position before delivering a heavy strike. After practice, Akane became a proficient lightningbender but initially held back on using the skill until absolutely necessary, conserving her energy and keeping it as an ace in the hole. Once gaining more control over her abilities, Akane integrated lightning generation into more of her moves, using the metal fingertips and knuckles in her custom-made gloves to conduct the electricity better.
Appearance[]
Akane is of average height with shoulder-length dark brown hair and eyes, having developed a slight tan after years of sunlight exposure at sea. She wears several charms in her hair, collected from years of travel and has a has a distinctive tattoo of a small salamander around her left ankle.
Her usual outfit consists of a short white and brown dress with various pockets and blouse underneath, accompanied with matching gloves, flat-heeled knee-high boots and a long dark red coat. She also wears a belt with a compass attached, initially kept out of sentiment but later proving to be quite useful when first exploring Republic City. For more carrying space Akane normally carries a leather satchel around, worn over her left shoulder.
When on patrol with Faceless Akane kept most of her outfit quite similar to her normal day-to-day clothes, feeling that none of the items were quite distinctive enough to easily identify her. However, the general colour tone is considerably darker to make it easier to blend into the dark and features a black eye mask. Later improvements included a sheath that could be worn over the shoulder or clipped to the belt at the hip for a newly acquired katana, and a pair of custom made leather gloves with metal fingertips and knuckles to better control lighting bolts while protecting her hands.
Abilities[]
Combat skills[]
Compared to most firebenders Akane is quite unorthodox in how she fights, using the already atypical Ocean Style with her own modifications. She focuses on high mobility and close combat, trying to stay within an opponent's blind spots and dodging around to make it more difficult to hit her. This is further augmented with bursts of fire for rapid movements and increasing the strength of her physical hits, as well as using of foreign martial arts moves. Like a few number of other skilled firebenders, Akane possess a natural ability to manipulate the colour of her flames, taking on a violet colour when increased in power. Initially during her stay in Republic City Akane's close combat skills were relatively average when not relying on firebending to make up for it, however, as she worked alongside Faceless she received considerable practice and experience in hand-to-hand combat.
During a mission on the city outskirts Faceless encountered a hired metalbending bodyguard, after the group successfully incapacitated him Akane decided to steal his sword on the spur-of-the-moment. While her training with the weapon is quite minimal, the katana is used more to focus her lightning generation abilities than actual swordfighting, allowing Akane to deliver heavier bolts with more accuracy when wielding it. Unfortunately her lack of formal training resulted in her being disarmed by skilled individuals, much to her disdain. This idea was later refined into a pair of armoured gloves with metal pieces to better conduct electrical attacks and reduce the likelihood of suffering fingertip burns. When finished these gloves were nicknamed "Silver Fangs" for their distinctive appearance.
Other skills[]
Akane's main skillset is trading and has demonstrated a particular talent for handling the various intricacies of international negotiation. Though years of study and experience she has become particularly adept at estimating the price of various traded goods, as well as who to go to for the better deals. Her contacts also proved to be especially useful in finding sources for Faceless to supply them without tipping off authorities. Additionally, thanks to various deals she managed to secure while in Republic City, Akane managed to secure additional funding for Faceless without issue with the help of the shipping company.
While a little out of practice, Akane is an experienced helmsman and navigator from her time in the fleet. She is more comfortable handling a cutter over anything larger due to the craft's higher manoeuvrability, but has had training in manning larger ships as part of a larger crew. Nevertheless, her navigational abilities remain sharp regardless of whatever terrain she finds herself on.
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