Raiku 'The Cutting Shadow' Mesumi (Deleted)

Name: Raiku ‘The Cutting Shadow’ Mesumi

Age: 22

Bounty: N/A

Species: Human

Occupation: Bounty Hunter

Allegiance: N/A

Home Village/Ocean: Twilit Village/East Blue

Appearance: Raiku is 6’1”. He has dark hair that falls about halfway down his neck in the back. His eyes are a grayish-blue, but when he is serious they will flash blood-red for a moment before returning to their natural color. Raiku’s most striking feature is his cowboy hat that he always wears. Other than that he usually wears an orange, open vest that shows his muscular physique, tan shorts, and black shoes that are rarely tied. On his back he has a tattoo that says, ‘Dead Man Walking’ in bright red letters that have a black outline surrounding each of them. The thing is, Raiku did not want that tattoo. It was forced on him.

History: Raiku grew up in a middle-class family. He had a good upbringing, a decent education, and plenty of friends. He dated a couple of times, but never found ‘the one’. By the time he was eighteen, Raiku had grown bored with learning math and science. He wanted to be somebody great, someone who helped people. So Raiku left school and joined the Marines. For a while, he was doing well. He had gone up a couple of ranks when he was caught up in an incident where a friend of his got drunk and murdered a civilian woman. It wasn’t Raiku’s fault. He hadn’t even been with his friends at the time, but since he had been out of the Marine base taking a walk at the time, and because he was normally with his friends, he was still blamed. Raiku was then thrown in prison along with his friends. He wasn’t in there for long though. All of the witnesses to the incident backed up Raiku’s story that he had not been at the bar where the woman was killed. So Raiku was let go, but his reputation was still damaged by what had happened. Not long later, Raiku resigned from the Marines and set out on his own.

Raiku started out as a simple wanderer, unsure of where he was going. But he saw many things in the world, both good and bad and he finally decided that he was once more going to help people. So Raiku became a bounty hunter. He wasn’t the best by far, but he was still very good at his job. One day, Raiku came to a town that was nearly empty. He discovered that a devil fruit had been found by the townspeople and when a passing pirate crew heard of it, they came in and slaughtered the villagers. There were only twelve people still alive in the village. Raiku set out after the pirates and came upon them while they were celebrating their newfound treasure. They had not decided whether to eat the fruit or sell it so it was still locked in a trunk on their ship. Raiku waited for several hours until the pirates had fallen asleep and then he came on board and killed all of them. There were a couple bounty heads on the ship so after Raiku had identified and marked the bodies, he took the devil fruit back to the town that it had been stolen from. The people did not want the fruit back, though. They told Raiku they could not risk another massacre like the one that had already occurred. So Raiku took the fruit and after some metal debate, he ate the fruit gaining the powers of the Choki-Choki no mi.

Soon after this, Raiku learned that his ‘friends’ from the Marines had escaped from prison. It was an odd situation as even the ones who would have been let out in a couple of days had run away. A few days after that, Raiku read in the newspaper that his friends’ bodies had all been found. They had been murdered. “It was a fitting end…” said the paper, “…for escaped murderers.” One weird thing that had come up was that each of the men had had the words, ‘Dead Man Walking’, tattooed onto his back. Raiku mused over this for a few more days, wondering how it was all connected. Something just didn’t seem right to him. Those guys had escaped…and then they had been killed? Or had someone helped them out and then ended up killing them later? Raiku didn’t have long to think. He ended up stopping in a town and going to the local tavern to get something to eat. While there, he ended up talking to a guy named Ron. Ron was a young man, not much older then Raiku. He was a talkative person who slipped something into Raiku’s drink while he was distracted. Raiku ended up drinking the object and slipping into a deep sleep. Ron took Raiku to an empty house where he proceeded to tattoo the words, ‘Dead Man Walking’, onto Raiku’s back. He left Raiku there, unbound, and he disappeared. Raiku awoke to find himself in the strange place. He returned to his ship and found the words on his back. Now Raiku had a pretty good idea of what was going on. This man, Ron, had killed his ex-friends. The reason for this seemed to be tied into the murder of the young woman at the bar since that was the only reason Raiku could find for this man to connect him with his friends in this way. Raiku moved fast. He had to find Ron before the other man found him. It turned into a game of cat and mouse that lasted for about two weeks. At long last, Raiku located Ron and killed him, but not before getting the whole story out of him.

Ron, as it turned out, had loved the woman who Raiku’s friends had killed. But Ron had had a metal defect and he was scorned by that same woman. Despite all of that, he still loved her and when she was killed, he concocted a plan to get her murderers out of prison and than kill them. He didn’t kill them right away though. First he would put that tattoo on them to scare them. Then he would track them down and kill them.

After the story was over, Raiku took Ron’s body and burned it before dumping the ashes into the ocean. No one would ever know what had happened to him or what he had done. Raiku continued on his way, feeling older than he ever had before.

Personality: Raiku is a fairly lazy, but nice person. He likes to take his time with things. Raiku is very protective, though. He will go out of his way to keep people he doesn’t even know, safe from harm. He does like to know why he is having to protect them though. Raiku enjoys teasing people and making jokes.

Ship: The Rubber Duck: A small sailing vessel which Raiku bought with his spare money. The name is an attempt to make the ship more interesting.

Ship Flag: N/A

Devil Fruit: Choki-Choki no mi
Type: Paramecia
Effect: This fruit has the ability to cut through most things (stone is the limit), reshape them, or simply hurl them at opponents.

Special Abilities:

Strength: Raiku’s strength is high above average.

Speed: Raiku’s speed is high above average.

Endurance: Raiku’s endurance is high above average.

Learned Techniques:

Choki-Choki Barrage: Raiku cuts into the floor or walls with his scissor hands and hurls them at his enemy.

Choki-Choki Violent Stream: Raiku dashes through his opponents cutting them with his scissor hands.

Choki-Choki Bunker: Raiku cuts into his surroundings and raises them in front of him to use as a shield.

Weapons/Items: N/A

Goals: Make the world a safer place for everyone.

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