PKMN Skies: Asuka

Name: Asuka
Age: 16 (start)///23 (current)
Gender: Female
Species: Raichu
Height: 3'3"
Weight: 70 lbs
Hometown: Hearthome City, Sinnoh
Birthdate: June 2^nd
Nature: Jolly

Personality

Asuka is a child at heart, no matter her age.  She can prattle on about fighting techniques and martial artists all day, unaware that her chattering and interests can get annoying to others.  Despite her enthusiasm, her life as an orphan has made her appreciate any and all friends she can get, so she tries to be as nice as she can to people; she has even developed a soft spot for a Muk that followed her home and a Koffing that was thrust upon her, knowing what it's like to be a "reject" and having no place to call home.

Despite her love of sport and competition, she absolutely hates confrontation.  If tempers flare and arguments erupt, she will either try to make everyone get along again or run out of the room in tears.  Considering she’s not a very good debater, she often runs out of the room.

Her focus on fighting has taken its toll on her academic interests.  She only recently learned to read, still can't count and she has trouble concentrating on complicated matters; if it doesn’t have anything to do with fighting or her friends, it might confuse or bore her.  That said, her extensive physical exercise has given her great familiarity with first-hand physics and she can tell time by watching the Sun.

Moveset

  Brick Break (Combining strength and accuracy, Asuka delivers a piercing strike by way of whatever limb she chose to use.)
  Double Team (Using her body's energy, Asuka creates duplicates of herself, whose movements she can control with her thoughts.  They have some mass to them, but explode into smoke upon touching most things.)
  Dig (Having buried herself and dug tunnels for ninjutsu training, Asuka has become adept at digging holes quickly and popping out of them for surprises and attacks.)
  Thief (Learned from a TM, Asuka focuses on something her opponent owns and forces herself to feel greed and envy towards it to cause Dark energy to radiate from her hand; she then strikes her opponent with this hand and snatches their possession.)

History

Asuka is an orphan of Hearthome City.  Where life failed to provide her parents, the City provided her a role model: its entertainment industry.

As a Pichu, most girls her age adored the pageantry and spectacle of the Pokemon Contests, but Asuka noticed something else about them.  The marvelous displays of flamethrowers, energy beams and boulder-crushing strength stole her heart and captivated her mind.  She would spend every day bouncing around the halls, throwing punches and kicks at imaginary targets; the orphanage's staff still recall her “performances” to this day.

As a Pikachu, her caretakers finally gave in to her pleas and let her see a live Pokemon Gym Battle.  If Mt. Coronet was a little, then her adoration of Battles was a lot.  Whether it was perfectly-targeted Shadow Ball or a last-minute Reversal attack, the skill and intensity the Battlers displayed took her breath away and kept her on the edge of her seat...Which is unfortunate, because her caretakers still had to pay for the whole chair.

Asuka studied Pokemon League regulations and noticed that there was a junior's division that even she was old enough to apply for.  She began training immediately...only to find out that she had a birth defect.  Her under-developed charge sacks made it impossible for her cheeks to store enough volts to make any electrical attacks practical.  Her soul crushed and her dreams dashed, Asuka consigned herself to the sidelines.

On her 15th birthday, a Mr. Mime claiming to be a Battle Team coach passed through Hearthome to scout for potential Battlers.  While he found a few recruits at the Gym, he wouldn't consider his visit complete until he got a chance to speak with Asuka, whose enthusiasm for Battles was clear, even after her "retirement."  The quirky Psychic-type found out about her cheek deficiency and proposed a solution.  You like those Fighting-types so much; why not use their moves?

Asuka was confused at first, but the coach visited every week, bringing martial arts films with him.  The philosophies of Bruce "The Hitmon" Lee opened her mind.  The skillful execution of Scrag Li awed her.  The fact that Jason Blazetham didn't wear shirts often probably didn't hurt either.  In just two and half months, the coach managed to adopt Asuka to take her on a country-wide tour to compete in the Pokemon League.  Her caretakers sent her off with a Thunderstone.  One evolution later, her body was stronger and her limbs were longer; just what she needed for her Fighting-type attacks.

As it turned out, this coach was something of a collector of "broken toys."  Asuka's teammates included a male Roserade who was ashamed of his effeminate nature, a Rhyperior who was exiled from her home and a Cryognal who barely understood emotions, let alone people.  Despite their odd natures, or perhaps because of them, these Battlers learned to work together in the arena and cherish each other in the tour bus.  Although Asuka never had issues growing up an orphan, she definitely loved the idea of finally having a family.  Going from meek to superstar and surrounded by surrogate siblings in so little time felt like something out of a storybook.  Unfortunately, storybooks have a tendency to end.

En route to their last Gym Battle, the team's tour bus was attacked by one of the myriad Team Somethings that seem obsessed with crime.  The Battlers were able to repel the criminals, but at a heavy cost.  In the chaotic crossfire, their coach, their father, took a fatal wound and had passed away before he could impart a final kernel of wisdom.  The Battlers came to love each other like family, but the very insecurities that brought them together wound up separating them; without the guiding voice of their mentor, they were too distraught to work together and finish their tour.  Asuka begged her siblings not to go, but none of them had the heart to stick around with the painful memories.  After dividing their League earnings and arranging for their coach's funeral, the Battlers split ways.

With no battles and no family to keep her on the road, Asuka wasn’t sure what to do.  She had no team to travel and fight with, but Hearthome held no place for her either.  When she was her most uncertain, she noticed an ad asking anyone and everyone willing to move to a then-unnamed town...That town became Springleaf, a small slice of Heaven that gave the lonely Raichu more adventures to burn off energy than she ever could have imagined but, more importantly, it gave her new friends that she came to love as unconditionally as her old family.  Over the course of the many water/paintball/laser tag/etc wars, adopting wayward ferals and helping (and being helped) by her new friends, Asuka has come to love Springleaf and its inhabitants more than she can possibly put into words.  While she would hesitate to say if she prefers this life to that of her Pokemon League days, she would also be hesitant to leave Springleaf to fight in the League once more.

Badges

- Pokeball: Platinum.  A badge signifying a citizen's activity in their community.  The higher the grade, the more you've shown your love for Springfield.  Platinum Rank indicates you are a true pillar of the community.

- Event: Gold.  This pristine coin commemorates your community spirit for participating Town Events.  At 10 or more events, you are a key player in Springleaf's history.

- Paintball: MVP, Green Team.  A medal earned on the fields of (paintball) battle.  Your exemplary service shined the brightest in the ranks of The Mean Green Machine.

- Paleontology: Bronze.  A badge rewarding a citizen for their work in the field of paleontology.  The higher the grade, the more fossils you've found for Springleaf's museum.  Bronze Rank indicates that you are a Novice Paleontologist, with 2-3 fossils unearthed.

Extras:

- Asuka wears a motorcycle jumpsuit similar to the one Bruce "The Hitmon" Lee wore in his most famous movie.  She also wears a scarf as seen in Sentai and Tokusatsu shows.
- With no parental guidance and being too reckless to monitor her own diet, Asuka exclusively eats take-out and junk food.  Her active lifestyle keeps her in shape, though.
- Asuka has an extensive collection of martial arts movies both old and new.  Unfortunately, she doesn't have much interest in more critically-acclaimed movies with no action.
- She was illiterate for most of her life, but Miriam Quispe managed to use her love of martial arts to teach her to read!  Although her spoken vocabulary is still low-brow, she can read at a high school level now.
- Despite learning to read, Asuka can't count and doesn't even know what numbers correlate to what symbols.  She can, however, tell how many objects are in front of her and intuit things like addition and subtraction.  Even though she has no units of measurement like minutes, she can tell the passage of time by watching the Sun.
- After years of living with a Muk and a Koffing, Asuka's tolerance for bad smells has reached a level where doesn't even notice foul odors anymore.  While this has made good smells all he more pleasant to her, it might compromise her in events like a gas leak.

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The ID card base was created by Wyndbain