Vanessa Kaneko [Updated]

[Jade]

Vanessa Kaneko

Generalities

Name: Vanessa Kaneko
AKA: “gold_warhead”
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Race: Half-blood
Faction: ---
Squad: ---
Role: ---
Battle Theme: Heel Girl

Rank: D
Red Orbs: 1000
Blue Orbs: 0

Character Description

Physical Appearance(s):

A young woman of above average height, at 5’11”, with a pretty face despite (or because of, depending on your tastes) an angry-looking neutral expression, long hair, and a slender but toned build. Vanessa’s outward appearance, in spite of everything about it, has been carefully constructed, torn down, and rebuilt over the years, even down to her hair color - her hair is naturally an almost lustrous gold, but starting in high school she started dying it black as a statement. Whatever that statement was, it’s been long forgotten; keeping her hair dyed has stuck, however, for a variety of half-baked reasons that really just boil down to the fact that she likes her hair dyed that color.

A deliberately “delinquent” look, which seemed to take more after Japanese stylings she really only would have seen in manga (though say a prayer for anyone who would have pointed it out to her face), had been crafted in her teenage years, but has now been replaced with something a little more presentable and adult. She still owns a handful of long skirts, but for the most part they’ve been replaced by smart button-up shirts and pants. Vanessa has kept her iconic jacket, Blackguard - a gift from her absent mother - throughout the years, and it’s rare to see her without it slung over her shoulders.

Personality:

With those she’s just met, Vanessa often comes off as standoffish or actively hostile, almost as if she’s actively putting up a hostile front for some reason - because she is. A good part of this is simply because she thinks it makes her seem tougher, which is good for business, while the other half or so is just a problem with needing to shake off the persona she built up during her teen years. Sure, Vanessa isn’t the most sociable person in the first place, and is in fact more of an introvert, but there are still people she likes and is willing to open up a bit around.

It became especially apparent during her school years that Vanessa struggles to put her attention to topics or tasks that her interest seems to just slide off of - but on the other hand, she is incredibly self-motivated and driven when it comes to things she is interested in. She’s had a lifelong fascination with warfare and combat in nearly all of its forms, ranging from things like strategy, the organization of armed forces, to the weapons people have wielded throughout the ages. While she’s by no means an expert when it comes to these topics, and there are obvious and major blind spots in her knowledge, Vanessa lights up when she has an opportunity to learn more or when getting the opportunity to experience them firsthand. She has other interests, of course, including things like manga (she has a hard time sitting around to just watch anime) and playing video games (especially in the RPG family). While she’d hardly call it something she likes doing, the constant stream of new things that scrolling through social media provides also ticks the right boxes for Vanessa, so it isn’t uncommon to find her standing, sitting, or laying down somewhere with her eyes glued to her phone.

Physical fitness is something that has come effortlessly to the daughter of an oni, and that combined with her innate healing factor has led to what some people generously call “recklessness”, but more accurately should be called “impulsive”. For someone who grew up knowing that demons exist and has begun to make a career out of stamping out those who need to be, Vanessa is almost careless in the way she carries herself in a fight; she’s liable to rush right in without a second thought in order to smash and crush with brute strength. This stands in stark contrast with her love for the theory of battlefield tactics, certainly - and she’s well aware of this fact. The impetuousness of youth is something that can only be tempered by time and experience, though. Until then, Vanessa is likely to end most fights laid out on the floor, exhausted from both putting in 110% and over-relying on her healing factor to tank hits.

Backstory

The only child of the union of the demon Kin-ki and the human Claude McKay, who met by some chance of fate in California. Vanessa grew up seeing her mother only rarely, when she could spare a moment to visit. Claude wasn’t a bad father by any means, but he could hardly keep up with Vanessa; from the minute she could properly pick herself up and stand on two legs, she was a rambunctious child.

Throughout her childhood, she never had much trouble making friends. Vanessa was often the leader of the pack through sheer vivaciousness, leading her peers in various activities she would dream up - often in playing at violence, which the stricter authority figures like teachers tended to frown upon. A trip to the park would turn into Vanessa rallying the other kids into playing at a medieval siege, with herself as the general of either the attacking forces or the one defending the castle’s walls, or leading whoever would follow her out to a nearby wooded creek area for a game of guerilla war, taking potshots at each other with make-believe guns.

When it came to academics… Vanessa always struggled. She had a rough time sitting still and focusing on tasks demanded of her if they couldn’t hold her interest, which resulted in disciplinary action at times. No matter how hard her teachers tried throughout her school years, Vanessa never really improved in this area - and eventually, she became demoralized from even really trying in class. It was around middle school, when she and her peers began to “grow up” so to speak, that Vanessa pretty much gave up on it entirely and called schooling a wash.

This would also mark the final time Vanessa ever saw her mother. It wasn’t a surprise; Kin-ki said as much, that she wasn’t sure when she would be able to visit again. Before she departed, though, her mother gave her a gift - a notably sturdy black jacket with long sleeves that Kin-ki said would serve as both protection and, if Vanessa ever needed it, a reminder of her.

The combination of doing poorly in school alongside her mother’s disappearing act had an impact on Vanessa, who stopped being so outgoing and withdrew on herself. It didn’t help that more signs of her demonic heritage began to show up at this time, manifesting primarily in her ability to bounce back from ridiculous amounts of damage to her body and her inhuman strength. She learned to leverage these things into getting people to leave her alone at school - though also that physical threats landed her in trouble, and she wound up suspended and in danger of being expelled at multiple points during her high school years.

By some miracle, though, she managed to graduate by the skin of her teeth. Claude had no delusions about Vanessa going off to college - instead, he encouraged her to follow in her mother’s footsteps, to use her growing strength to be a protector rather than a bully. It took a fateful encounter with a particularly violent demon attempting to make a snack out of an unsuspecting tourist in an alley for Vanessa to really consider it; even as the tourist ran off screaming from the scene of the delinquent girl standing over a demon’s broken body, just beginning to disperse, she had to admit that it felt good to help someone.

For the past year or so since then, Vanessa has plied her trade as, effectively, muscle for hire. She prefers jobs where she gets to smash demons into the pavement, to be sure, and has thus worked alongside the occasional Descendant crew and Strigoi gang with the hopes of being hired on more permanently - but, as none of them have really clicked with her, it’s been more common for her to take more standard bodyguard, bouncer, and general “we need someone strong to do a thing”-type jobs where demons aren’t even on anyone’s radar. Still, she grows more restless by the day, eager to put her talents to proper use.

Traits

Healing Factor
As the child of a demon and a human, Vanessa possesses the healing factor common among her “cousins”. The magic in her blood works overtime to keep up with Vanessa’s recklessness, repairing the damage she takes at speed - though at the cost of her own stamina.

Brute Strength
Belied by her slender frame, Vanessa has strength befitting the daughter of an oni, outstripping her peers by a surprising degree to those who have yet to learn not to judge a book by its cover.

Equipment

Name: Blackguard
Description: A black, long-sleeved jacket that is a few sizes too big for Vanessa, left to her by her mother as a gift. This dormant Devil Arm is notably nearly worthless in this state for anything other than a bit of padding against blows, but Vanessa is still rarely seen without it - she almost always wears it over her shoulders.
Rank: D
Traits: -
Aspects: -

Combat Foci

Name: Blacktop Brawler
Description: Calling this a real combat style would be a disrespect to anyone who has ever done any proper training or practice. Vanessa is all about overpowering her opponents with raw brute force, damn the consequences. She puts too much stock in her ability to shrug off damage, which has lead her into more than a few binds - but her apparent disregard for her own safety lets her get in close and overwhelm opponents who are expecting a rational actor who could be dissuaded by things like “fear of pain or death” in combat. Heavy swings, kicks, full-body tackles, headbutts; truly anything goes, as long as it gets the job done.
Rank: D
Aspects: -

Techniques

Name: KO Bell
Description: After grappling a strong opponent to a standstill, Vanessa pulls her head back and then slams it forward to deliver a brutal headbutt in an attempt to put the fight back in her favor, if not knock her opponent out outright.
Focus: Blacktop Brawler
Aspects: -

[Jade]

Divinity Statue: link

Orbs Gained

(link) Character Approval [Gained 1000 ]

Orbs Spending

(Trait Rank D) Healing Factor [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Trait Rank D) Brute Strength [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Devil Arm Rank D) Blackguard [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Combat Focus Rank D) Blacktop Brawler [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]

(Technique 0 Aspects 1 Focus) KO Bell [Spent 0 , Spent 0 ] [Gained 0 ]