Reiko Nakidori [Banshee]

❛❛ Banshee ❜❜

Reiko Nakidori

23 || Bisexual || Female || Vigilante

PERSONALITY

POSITIVE
✔ Assertive, Independent, Brave, Dedicated, Loyal, Protective, Observant, Inquisitive, Understanding, Flirtatious, Humourous

NEGATIVE
✖ Reckless, Guarded, Brash, Impatient, Hot-Headed, Restless, Vindictive, Stubborn, Show Off, Tempestuous, Insecure, Lonely, Rebellious

LIKES
✔ Doting Dads, Orphans, Honesty, Singing, Working Out, Music Shops & Lounges, Dancing, Nightlife, Innuendo, Hard Liquor, Leather

DISLIKES
✖ Corruption, Mobsters, Drugs, Smoking, Chauvinism, Early Mornings, Prudish People, Men in Suits

PERSONALITY

A somewhat complicated young woman that at her best can be charming, friendly and supportive but at her worst can be hot headed, stubborn and even volatile, the impression that Miss Nakidori gives can be different depending on how one meets her, but at her core she is a girl with a strong sense of justice and a desire to do the right thing despite the missteps she might take. Once a fun loving girl who loved to sing, while certain events have left some shadows in her personality, Reiko maintains a usually upbeat but pragmatic character that acknowledges the dark side in the world and people even if she doesn’t like them.

Something of a show off, as someone with a great singing voice thanks to her quirk Reiko has gotten used to the adulation of audiences and the compliments she receives for both her skill and her looks, the latter of which having prompted a more playful side in her as she has grown older. Enjoying singing songs that are slow and yet a little bit racy at the same time, one of the ways that Miss Nakidori melts her stress away is through suggestive lyrics and actions as it distracts her from things that might plague her.

Also something of an adrenaline junkie, she works out every day if she can in order to maintain a fine and able physique and to also help with her levels of internal stress. Keeping a punch bag in her apartment so she can wail on it when she is angry or upset, this tends to be the best way that Miss Nakidori can vent and tends to feel tense and restless if not given a manner to physically work off aggravation.

A tempestuous temptress at times who can have a bit of a short temper, Reiko is the type who can struggle to keep her emotions in check and seems to especially fall into the ‘trap’ presented by wrath. Admitting that the red mist can blind her sometimes, she can be reckless when pursuing the chance to even a perceived wrong and this can lead to a heavy handed and risky approach to situations.

This somewhat clumsy method definitely apparent in her close personal relationships or more accurately lack thereof, for all of her flirtation Miss Nakidori can become guarded and even cold towards people when she feels vulnerable. Not quite the fountain of confidence she appears, Reiko is afraid of opening herself up fully to others because she feels she might lose them, and seems to prefer to keep some distance between herself and other people rather than get attached.

Often hiding this factor behind teasing words and a flippant attitude, those who have tried to get her into a serious relationship have found she may mock them for their romantic intentions, and iterate that she’s only looking for fun not to get tied down. In truth somewhat lonely and finding herself drawn to people all the same, she appears to hold herself back and can seem rather jealous if she feels someone else is trying to take someone she likes away, making her competitive and bitchy.

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 170cm
WEIGHT: 61KG
HAIR/STYLE: Very long dark brown hair that often appears black depending on the light, Reiko wears it styled from left to right with her left ear visible while her right hanging over her right shoulder, often in a loose tail or braid at the back.
SKIN/SCARS: Fair of complexion but often carrying a light tan, she has a tattoo of a heart with piano keys inside it and a trail of musical notes on her left shoulder.
EYES: Large, slightly almond shaped with thick, dark lashes, she has Magenta irises that can range from pinkish to deep red depending on the light.
NOTABLES:

A striking beauty with delicious dark features, Reiko has a frame that mixes together the features of a curvy bust and hips together with a workout-honed body that features noticeable tone in her body and a much defined stomach, without being too bulky. The jaw and nose of Miss Nakidori a little on the sharp side but her face having an innate softness about it that gives her a pretty and friendly set of features, she tends to accentuate her eyes with some nice smoky makeup and isn’t afraid to wear rich and deep tones of lipstick, with her makeup taken up to an even higher level when she’s on stage.

Preferring to dress casually but often looking like she’s ready for a night out, this body confident brunette isn’t afraid of showing off her fine figure by wearing revealing and tight clothing such as crop tops, miniskirts, short shorts and other items that mix together for a slightly tomboyish look that seems to have a bad girl kind of vibe. Liking leather items especially, she can often be seen wearing a skirt, pants or leather jacket when trying to look cool or edgy. One staple part of her apparel being a pair of platinum pendant earrings she got as a keepsake of her mother, they are of simple design in a silvery-coloured teardrop shape and she usually wears these every day regardless of outfit. Dressing up in her job as a lounge singer by wearing flamboyant dresses and gowns to make her look the part as well as styling her hair more elegantly, Reiko quite enjoys the feminine way she looks in these moments and the confidence booster it gives her, but at the same time finds it too high maintenance for day to day life.

Not possessing a specific costume she wears for vigilante work but instead dressing casually, she usually wears a variation on her normal casual outfit in dark colours to help her move around more discreetly, wearing a leather bomber jacket and fingerless biker gloves as well as forearm and skin guards along with steel toe capped biker boots. Also wearing a domino mask to protect her identity somewhat, the ultimate truth is that Reiko will step into trouble she notices regardless of what she is wearing, and sometimes forgoes the whole need to protect herself in a pinch or spur of the moment decision.

HISTORY

Born as what was supposed to be the first child of Hideo Nakidori and his young wife Katsumi, tragedy struck even from the first day of Reiko’s life as sadly her mother passed away in childbirth. Left as a daughter who would never know her matriarch, all that the brunette had to know the woman by was the accounts of her father and family members, as well as her keepsake earrings.

Her patriarch forced to take on the dual role of mother and father given the situation, the loss of his wife seemed to make Hideo very fond and protective of his little girl and despite being a talented MMA fighter who could have contended for world titles, he gave that up to look after her. Because of this, despite never knowing Katsumi, in her way Reiko never felt like she was missing anything as she grew up.

Naturally the life of a single father not an easy one when he had to provide for and take care of an infant daughter, given his ability to handle himself Hideo would work as a bouncer and occasional bodyguard to make money while grandparents and aunts babysat little Reiko. Regretful that this meant that he might miss out on seeing his little girl grow up, despite the fact that some jobs didn’t end until the early hours of the morning, Mr Nakidori would always be up first thing to make breakfast for his child and took care of the housework too. It was exhausting for him, but in his opinion Reiko was worth it.

The income of Hideo gradually increasing as he got jobs for more exclusive places and higher classes of individual to guard, while they were never anything called wealthy they got by and the man would often lavish gifts on his daughter. Totally smitten with her, he was only more excited when Reiko’s quirk began to manifest fully. Never wanting to see his daughter unhappy but given all the more motivation to avoid this when it became apparent that a screaming tantrum would lead to half their apartment getting wrecked, thankfully these instances were rare thanks to the close bond the two possessed.

Little Miss Nakidori showing a talent for singing from a young age, he would often lie on the couch after she had gotten home from preschool and relax as the girl sang him sweet songs she had picked up in school and on TV. Not having the best set of pipes himself, their little concerts would usually end up with him trying to join in and his inability making Reiko pout, only for them to end up giggling together because of tickles and hugs. It was the best time.

Miss Nakidori’s pride in her father being the impetus that compelled an aspect of her that was far less sweet to come to the surface, one day in elementary the dark haired little girl overheard some of her classmates with her innately sharp hearing talking about how her father was a crook and how she probably would too. Certainly not happy to hear this and confronting the ringleader of the group about the lies, she was told that the boy’s mother had seen her dad working for a criminal and that made him a bad guy.

Not taking such an assertion terrible well, Reiko doesn’t fully remember what happened after she flew into a rage at such nasty accusations but does recall being on top of the kid who she had apparently given a bloody nose and black eye as she lashed him with her fists. This certainly got the girl into quite some trouble with the school and her dad was brought in to school, offering an deep apology to the lad and his family but naturally denying the accusation when his daughter reiterated it. He called it silly, and Reiko agreed.

This incident having repercussions in their relationship however, Hideo knew why his little girl had seen red so to speak because it was something that used to happen to him too. Revealing that he was something of a hellion when he was a child and even a delinquent, he had only started to get control of himself by using his aggression safely, and that’s where his interest in martial arts had come from. Taken under the wing of an understanding coach and taught discipline as well as being given a chance to vent his innate aggression on pads and punch bags, he claimed that if he had stayed on that old path than Katsumi would never have given him a second glance.

Deciding that even if it wasn’t the most girly hobby Reiko would benefit from something similar, after installing a punch bag and some other equipment into their apartment, in an odd way the art of combat became something they could bond over. Hideo taking his daughter for jogs and coaching her through workouts and things at home, it became a way to unload stress and in a weird way a chill and often goofy hobby to go through. The daddy-daughter duo making little games of tasks and Reiko throwing in little bits of singing as they trained, they were fun times and even today when the woman works out she can’t help but think of them and smile a bit. Even going as far as to watch those cheesy old sports drama movies together and grinning at the montage moments, after a few Reiko began to sing the tunes from the movies as they jogged and things like a personal workout playlist.

The effort to train his daughter also seeming to have an unanticipated effect on Hideo, it seemed to stir up his old love for competition and though a little reluctant to take up fighting sports again now that he had someone to take care of, Reiko managed to convince her daddy to follow his dreams. Working toward that goal with increasing earnestness, Miss Nakidori recalls many times around the age of ten she would smile as she watched her father working rigorously on the bag or ride after him on her bike out for a run. Excited by the prospect of seeing her father compete, while his initial competitions were largely amateur affairs, after a couple of rusty performances Hideo began chalking up wins and looked to be aiming for the pro circuit again.

Unfortunately, maybe it was age or something but there always seemed to be an opponent every once in a while he couldn’t get the better of. Describing it to her as an off day and nothing to worry about, despite his occasional losses even amateur cage fighting seemed to be pretty lucrative for the two person family. Earning enough between his normal jobs and the fights he participated in to move them to a nice apartment with a whole room they could use as a gym with a few machines in, and saying he had a nice nest egg that could be Reiko’s college fund or whatever she needed to do to follow her own dreams.

The ambition that Reiko had to become a singer, while she wasn’t keen on the idea of becoming some sugar sweet pop idol, she quite liked the idea of being in a cool band or something. Taking part in a few talent contests because of this and even chalking up a win, as she entered her teenage years everything seemed happy for Miss Nakidori really, with both her and her daddy aiming for their dreams. Unfortunately they were to hit a pretty serious iceberg when she was fifteen.

Having some singing practice one day so that she was unable to make one of Hideo’s fights, after the class ended up getting cancelled she went to meet her dad to surprise him before the fight and wish him luck, but overheard something awful. The sharp hearing she possessed letting her know even through the locker room door that someone was urging Hideo to throw the fight like the other times and Reiko’s father seeming to reluctantly, as the smartly dressed man left the room the girl found her world shattered. Quickly putting together the details and remembering those accusations from years ago that he was in league with crooks, while her dad tried to explain himself she just ran off in tears.

Sadly this the last time that Reiko got to see her father, after stumbling around the streets for hours in shock, the girl got back to her apartment to find the police and her grandparents waiting. Apparently going on to win the fight but afterward being stabbed by an unknown assailant and bleeding to death in an alleyway, Hideo was dead. Ouch.

Reiko naturally broke up about this and sent to live with Hideo’s parents out in the Musutafu suburbs, away from Tokyo, there was a concern from the detective investing the case that whoever the gangster who was suspected of being responsible that he would go after Miss Nakidori too as a witness. The brunette professing she didn’t mind the idea of that really, after what had happened she found that out red mist returning worse than ever and despite being sent to live with her grandparents would head back to Tokyo looking for leads on the people who killed her dad.

The detective in charge of the case not unsympathetic to the situation that Reiko found herself in, while he tried to persuade her away from her path of vengeance, the man named Masao would also intervene when the girl was found hassling people on the street and brought in. Let off on an unofficial caution because of his influence and the circumstances, for the most part Miss Nakidoro’s investigation came to nothing really, not until she got a package in the post that was.

Masao apparently working on a big case that linked the gangster to the Yakuza and wanting to take him down for a number of crimes including the murder of Hideo, in the summer after her sixteenth birthday, she was sent a case file of all the information he had gathered on the man. Apparently the detective having been close to a bust but sensing that someone in the department was dirty given how the man seemed to always be ahead of his investigation, always managing to slip away from falling into a place where he could be charged with any crime, Masao had been worried he might be next on the list and sent the file as a contingency since he saw Reiko as an honest girl he could trust. It never clear whether the heart attack the man suffered was an act of foul play or simple overstress, it did lead to his package being sent to her and she found out the name of the gangster she sought; Sadao Yamaguchi.

Recognising the man in the file photo as the same one whom she had seen leaving the locker room, while it was unclear whether Masao had intended for her to use this information for revenge or find a way to bring the situation to justice was unclear, but she chose the former. Knowing who she was looking for now and the file mentioning a number of places that he tended to hang out, luckily for Reiko he seemed to enjoy a jazz lounge and that gave her an easy ‘in’. Managing to pass an audition when she had turned seventeen using an alias and disguise, Miss Nakidori wowed the crowds with her singing and waited for him to come to the club again. He did, and thankfully didn’t recognise her, so the plan was on.

Slipping away from the stage when she saw Sadao slip out back with another girl grasped by the wrist, she came outside to find him all over the whimpering and trembling thing not much older than she was, but made sure she didn’t have to struggle for long. Slugging Sadao with a Hideo special that was hard enough to knock the man out, she told her workmate to go back inside and not to worry about this, then dragged her victim away to somewhere quiet and left him to die in a dirty alley bleeding and unable to be save himself, just like her daddy was.

Sent into a state of shock at the deed she had done, the fact that she had killed a man, Reiko managed to make it back to the bathroom of the club before throwing up what felt like everything inside her, then slipped away and burned the clothing and wig she had been wearing. Reading in the news that the investigation into Sadao’s death had proven inconclusive and attributed to gang violence, it appeared that Miss Nakidori had managed to get away with murder, but neither that fact nor the deed she had committed had seemed to make the girl happy. What she was left with seeming only to be sadness, once the path of anger had been followed she had hoped it would make her feel like she missed her father less, but it didn’t. She actually missed him more than ever.

Sent into a mix of depression and PTSD because of what had occurred, Reiko largely coasted through school until graduation and had little prospect of going on to higher education really. Working at a convenience store for a while and unsure of what she wanted to do with herself, it was when the girl was twenty that she found a ‘calling’ so to speak. Walking home from a late night shift a little bit drunk one night, her sharp hearing picked up someone’s cries for help in the distance and she found a high school boy being set upon by thugs who were beating him for having a mutation quirk.

Miss Nakidori wasn’t sure exactly why she stepped in to help the kid. Sloppy and out of the habit of fighting really due to her disinterest because of her depression, she largely relied on the rush of rage and her own quirk to overpower the thugs, not even noticing as she fractured her radius blocking a strike from a baseball bat, she left them in a bloody heap and found that for the first time in ages she felt OK. The flood of adrenaline and endorphins giving her a high while the situation making her feel like she had done something good, Reiko felt a little pride in what she had done and hoped would have too.

Arriving at her grandparents’ house and quickly being sent to hospital with the lie that she had broken her arm in a clumsy accident, while she doubted that they believed her, nothing more was said really. Perhaps Hideo’s parents more than used to having a wild child given what he had told her about his own youth, they seemed to largely overlook the incident and actually seemed glad when Reiko seemed a little more upbeat in the aftermath.

This really the first instance of Reiko engaging in her first act of personal heroism or as the world knew it ‘vigilantism’, once her arm was better the girl became increasingly interested in using her gifts for what she saw as good. A little more attentive and fighting to get her body back in shape, while she told a few more lies about wanting to deal with her nasty temper and such to her grandparents in order to convince them to let her have a punch bag in her room, she started to hit the gym as well and go for runs, remembering those old times when she would work out with her dad. Considering even going as far as to join some martial arts and self-defence classes but finding the idea of someone other than her dad teaching her felt ‘disrespectful’, through practice and experience she begun to put together a fighting style based on what she remembered of Hideo’s teachings instead.

Trawling the streets of Musutafu for about a year before worrying that her Grandparents were becoming suspicious, in order to provide herself with the real ‘bad guy playground’ of Japan, Reiko began to audition for roles in lounges and bars that liked a little live entertainment in the nation’s capital. Getting a few gigs which led to a few steady appearances in placed dotted around Kabukicho and other places of entertainment in Tokyo, she also worked a bit as a hostess in clubs and generally seemed to get jobs around bars. Finding this a great place to sense where trouble might kick off, few people seemed to realize that the same girl singing on stage in a gorgeous gown would later be hammering her knuckles into the faces of thugs and gangsters. Long gloves tended to help with that.Also managing to grab an apartment in Tokyo despite the high price of rent thanks to the fact that she cleared out a drug den from a nice old lady's apartment block, Miss Nakidori got a big discount and an agony aunt as well to gossip with.

Keeping up the habit so to speak and becoming something of a seasoned ‘pro’ at the old vigilante game, when the news that the Hero Association was being set up hit the able ears of Miss Nakidori, she found herself tempted to sign up in a way. Ultimately deciding that while it might pay her bills a bit better she was probably less likely to get rebuked for going overboard and tied down by carrying on as a vigilante, while Reiko has no beef with people who have opted to ‘go straight’ she has for the most part decided it isn’t a game for her. Maybe one day if she wanted to settle down a bit, but not now. Besides, she kind of likes the fact she can fight bad guys and sing her heart out for crowds anyway…