Kazuhiko Takeda

[Croco†]

Name: Kazuhiko Takeda
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Southridge High School
Hobbies and Interests: Baseball, martial arts, Japanese history, hanging out with friends(and eating sushi with them)

Appearance: Kazuhiko stands 5 feet, 11 inches and has what one would call an athletic build, tipping the scales at 190 pounds. He is not too muscular, but you know that he has strength in his arms, chest and legs; yet he is not too fat or too thin. His hair is a deep black and comes down to the top of his neck, usually either parted down the center or combed back. His eyes exhibit the typical "almond" shape seen in eastern Asian races, the brown orbs staring back at you while you can see that he has a slender nose and mouth, though his lips aren't any thicker or skinnier than what is perceived as normal. For clothes, he usually wears things from preppy stores, though he has a distinct preference for Aeropostale, his feet covered in stylish athletic shoes.

He also has a pair of prominent tattoos on his right arm. The one on his upper arm consists of four black diamonds arranged to make a larger diamond, the kanji characters Fu, Rin, Ka and Zan above the formation, taken from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, and the word "TAKEDA" beneath the formation. The lower arm is covered in an orange and black tiger stripe pattern from the wrist to just below the elbow.

Biography: Kazuhiko, or "Kaz" as he is called, was born in Nagoya, Japan to Katsuro and Sumiko Takeda. He has a sister, Natsumi, who is two years older than him. When Kaz was four months old, Katsuro took a position within his company that gave him a sizeable raise; however, it meant having to relocate to the company's headquarters near Highland Beach, California. The move was harder on his parents than it was on the oblivious children, and Kaz was raised as an American. He learned English and the American way of life, though his parents instilled the traditions of their homeland at the same time. Thus, Kaz learned both English and Japanese through school and is proficient at both, though he is more comfortable speaking English.

However, a 7th-grade history lesson would change Kaz's life as he knew it. His class was studying the history of the Far East toward the end of the year...and when they got to the lesson about Japan and, more notably, the samurai that lived and fought for their lands, his teacher pulled him aside and asked that he study his own bloodline on a hunch...that he had a legend as an ancestor. Three days of intense research after school revealed what the history teacher had suspected...that Kaz was a descendant of the 16th-century warlord Shingen Takeda, the legendary Tiger of Kai.

He began to study his ancestors with a fervent, almost obsessive interest. He studied martial arts and learned how to handle blades in the traditional way of the samurai. He took the Bushido to heart in everything he did, whether it was in his studies, his life away from school, or as a pitcher for the Southridge High baseball team. This inner strength is evident when one addresses Kaz, but they soon realize that he is a young man that one can get along with very easily, warming the room with a smile that is borderline contagious.

Advantages: Kaz's physical prowess is considerably better than that of most of his classmate that don't participate in athletics. He can also handle a katana, wakizashi(which is shorter than a standard katana) and pole weapons such as the naginata and spear with lethal precision, and though he would rather not, he can use his martial arts abilities to take down any potential attacker.
Disadvantages: Kaz can sometimes get "tunnel vision" and focus his energy intensely on one particular matter, whether it is something or someone. He is also a proud individual, which can sometimes lead to him being boastful...and that has earned him the scorn of more than a few people in his life.