HARUHIKO HAMAZAKI

[Haru Hamazaki]

HEAR US NOW - - -

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=align,center]

[style=width: 420px; background-color: #dc2730; border: 5px solid #dc2730; text-align: center; margin-top: -3px;]

LET THE WHOLE THING BLOW

B A S I C I N F O

★ NAME: Haruhiko Hamazaki
★ NICKNAME: Haru
★ MEMBER GROUP: Human
★ POKEMON: Totodile
★ AGE: Sixteen
★ HEIGHT: 5'9"
★ WEIGHT: 148 lbs.
★ FACE CLAIM: Reid Hershel from Tales of Eternia
★ APPEARANCE:

Haruhiko “Haru” Hamazaki does not really stand out very much from other teenagers in his age group at first glance. Once a bit on the short side, this sixteen year old is now a nice but not outstanding five-foot-nine thanks to a growth spurt over the last year or so, and he hopes to keep on going. Build-wise he is a lot stronger than at first glance, with a bit of muscle on his lean frame thanks to constant training with his team, although he is by no means a "macho" kind of guy. He just happens to keep himself fit, and doesn't care very much about concealing it. Perhaps the thing that stands out most about this boy, however, is his mess of red hair; brushes, combs, and tsking mothers have all tried to smooth it in their day, but all have failed to make a permanent change on its naturally messy style. Still, despite its messiness it somehow manages to stay well out of his eyes most of the time, giving him a clear view of the world around him, bright blue viewing the it in silent challenge. Both his eyes and lips are extremely responsive to his mood, and rarely does the teen retain one constant expression; he might be grinning one minute, yelling in rage or - in a battle - pure “hot-bloodedness” the next. The freckles he used to sport as a kid have faded away with time, but he retains his ability to achieve a light tan with enough time in the sun; unfortunately, thanks to his current habits, he hasn't had much time to appreciate the sunlight at all.

Haru’s preference in clothing is wide and encompasses pretty much anything he can put on his body and still move around in. During the summer, tank tops and cargo shorts work well enough for him, which are usually replaced by jeans and tee-shirts at the approach of the colder months. When it gets really cold out, he might throw on a hoodie - or even an actual coat - but it’s never anything fancy, just what he can find at the moment and is at least somewhat clean. Color variations are almost as widespread as the clothes themselves, though he does have a fondness for blues, reds, oranges, and yellows, pretty much in that order. Lately, he's taken to wearing a peculiar blue and tan outfit while training but these clothes rarely see the light of day outside of his personal bouts with his own Pokémon, likely because they leave his stomach bare and he's tired of getting snickers about it. They're easy to move around in! Really, what's so funny about that? When out long sessions of training in the wilderness or extended jobs, he usually takes a worn navy-blue duffel bag with him to hold his possessions such as his wallet, spare pokéballs, a small utility knife, and Pokémon food. Additionally, to make up for the fact that as a human he does not have any natural defenses to rely on, he keeps a small one-handed sword on him much of the time. In the art of swordplay he is still very much a beginner, but how else would he defend himself in the odd chance something were to happen to his team?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

P E R S O N A L I T Y

★ POSITIVE:

• Driven - While some parents might dismiss their son's ambitions to be a trainer as nothing more than a childish dream, Haru's determination to excel isn't something that can be labeled as such. He does not have a dream so much that he has a goal. And he will do whatever he needs to to achieve it - no matter what kind of intense training it takes, no matter how many times he has to lose along the way, no matter if he has to put his own life on the line in order to see it though. Call it stupidity. Call it recklessness. But whatever you call it, you are not going to make him give in. Whether it's beating the Castle Guardians or protecting his family from Epispect, he'll do whatever he has to...no matter who gets in the way.
  
• Alert - Not much goes on around this trainer that he does not notice, mostly because he is constantly keeping an eye out for wild Pokémon or trainers to challenge. In fact, you might say the only time he is not paying attention to his surroundings is when he’s in class, writing out “dream team” rosters in his notebooks or sleeping on the roof after a late night out training.
  
• Friendly - While the lessons on “politeness” might have been lost on the boy, his mama raised him to be an open young man, and one who is not close minded about others. Unfortunately, rather than making normal friends, he has a habit of seeing everyone else as a potential rival and can be a bit of a pest when he goes around declaring such rivalships. Still, chances are if he makes such a declaration, he really does like you. As he sees those he dislikes as nothing more than someone for him to beat.
  
• Honest - Basically, Haru sucks at lying. So much. You have no idea how many times his mother has given him an earful about ditching class to go train because he could not come up with a good excuse (hint: it’s a lot). Besides, real men don’t get through life by lying and cheating and neither will he. Of course, lying by omission doesn't seem to fall under this umbrella of overall honesty, but that's different!
  
• Adventurous - Besides being a young, hopeful trainer, Haru is also an avid explorer, even if he knows why his parents caution him to be careful now. If it were up to him, he’d get a flying Pokémon and set off across the ocean to see what else there is in this big world...but with his family needing him at home, that kind of a dream is far out of reach. At least for now.
  
• Independent - While he respects his parents in his own way, Haru is very much his own person and thinks he is old enough and capable enough to make his own decisions. Heck, there was supposedly a time when parents would let their kids leave home as young as ten or eleven, right? A boy in his mid-teens should be just fine then. Additionally, he’s never been seriously hurt while out on his own and he can cook his own meals, which in his mind indicates that he is perfectly independent. How much of it is true is, as with everything, up for debate though.
  
• Protective - Ever since his sister received an illegal DNA transfusion, Haru has been on high alert around others, even those he considers his friends. If Epispect ever caught wind of what they did, she - no, their entire family - could be in danger, and as much as he used to fight with his sister when he was younger, he would never let that happen. So he keeps his mouth shut, his eyes open, and his sword and Pokémon at his side, always ready to step in and defend what matters to him. Even if it personally costs him dearly.
  

★ NEGATIVE:

• Reckless - Since Haru believes that losing is just part of learning how to grow as a trainer, he fails to realize that being a Pokémon trainer is actually a very dangerous occupation and that there are wild Pokémon out there that would seriously kill him if given the chance. So while he is constantly rushing into battle head-first, he is not always taking it as seriously as he should, nor does he realize just how high the stakes can be. Additionally, he's a bit too quick to lash out at anything he identifies as potentially dangerous to his family, which might end in him giving them away rather than actually protecting them. He's trying to learn restraint; his natural hot-bloodedness just keeps him from succeeding much of the time.
  
• Lacks Tact - While he is an honest guy, Haru is not always the most tactful with his honesty. For one thing, he barely has any censor, which can lead to a lot of situations where he might as well shove his foot in his mouth before he even bothers saying anything. Sure, there are some things he can keep to himself, but outside of a life-and-death situation good luck with finding a moment where he doesn't look like an idiot for being blunt. There are some things that no amount of half-hearted apologies can fix, and once you say something really stupid, there is no taking it back.
  
• Lacks Tactics - Haru may consider himself a trainer, but really, he’s still a bit of an amateur even after so long when it comes to planning his strategies. That means he thinks that if he can just blitz his opponent with attacks and dodge their moves every now and then, he can win. While he comprehends type advantages and things like that, he really doesn’t focus enough on using defensive or stat-changing moves. He’d rather just keep plugging away with his all-out offensive “strategy” until it works for him. Maybe skipping his dad’s battle tactics classes all these years was not such a good idea after all....
  
• Lazy - There really is not much other than Pokémon that can keep this boy’s attention for extended time periods. He puts off his homework as long as he can in order to train, and wastes class time either sleeping, skipping, or thinking about his future “awesome team of amazingness.” It shows, as his grades are constantly fluctuating and his mother has threatened to ban him from training ever again on occasion since it worked well the first time around. Even so, if he listens to her, these days it's more about putting a stop to her nagging than any real fear of losing training privileges. That, and he doesn't need to put any more needless stress on the poor woman's shoulders.
  
• Boastful - Haru may be a graceful enough loser, but man can his boasting about how cool he is when he manages to win a battle grate on the nerves! And then there’s his constant boasts that he will once day surpass those who do beat him soundly. There's only so far confidence can go before it just becomes annoying.
  
• Bitter - Despite appearing to be an all-around positive guy, Haru is actually rather bitter when it comes to certain aspects of Aether City. For one thing, why should his family have to live in constant fear of being discovered just because they couldn't afford proper care for his sister? She's just a kid! She never did anything to deserve this fearful, paranoid kind of life! Sometimes, he even finds himself wishing he could do something to change the way things are, but he's just a trainer! When the frustration builds, all he can do is go outside the city and blow off some steam by training himself to the point of exhaustion. It's probably what keeps him from doing something truly stupid.
  
• Secretive - Because Epispect could eliminate his entire family for purchasing DNA illegally off the Black Market and harboring an illegal in their home, Haru has grown used to hiding a lot of things in the last few years from everyone. Neighbors, fellow students, and even his friends don't know what's really going on in his home life, and he would like to keep it that way. If they can just write him off as another goofy battle maniac then that's fine by him.
  

★ HABITS, QUIRKS:

• As previously stated, Haru would rather think about Pokémon than schoolwork, and he has entire notebooks devoted to lists of possible team rosters and doodles of Pokémon. It's a pretty immature habit but he just can't seem to kick it.
  
• As stated in his appearance section, he's taken up sword fighting recently. He's not so great at it yet, but knowing he has something to rely on besides his team gives him at least a little bit of comfort.
  
• He is ambidextrous, and can write equally well with either hand. However, since he rarely pays attention in class, it never really helps him. Likewise, because he is still just starting out with the sword, he tries to stick with just using his right hand until he can master the basics.
  

★ OVERALL PERSONALITY:

Haruhiko is truly a soul that belongs to a bygone era, a young man too concerned with becoming a trainer and transforming himself and his team into the best they can be to entirely belong to this darker age despite its grip on him. He would have fit in a lot better in the pre-Aether world, where he could be just another trainer facing gym challenges and aiming for the Elite Four but alas that world is long dead and he has to make due with what training he can find in the wilds and at the hands of like-minded modern trainers. And despite his disinterest toward other subjects - particularly high school - he is extremely driven to succeed in his Pokémon oriented goals. Losing is not enough to daunt him, and he accepts wins and losses alike with a promise to get stronger, although the boasting he throws in with his victories should really be cut down. Even so, losing really does frustrate him - he just tries not to show it, lest the frustration start weighing him down. Yes, seeing the world and the Pokémon in it, facing new challenges and fighting them off, that is truly what life is about for this sixteen-year-old. Screw school, he fully intends to follow the family tradition and take over his family's dojo after his father retires. After he proves to the world just how amazing of a trainer he is, of course.

Yeah, by now it should be clear that the boy is a bit too arrogant over training abilities he frankly does not have yet. But really, despite his boasting and declarations of rivalry, he is a good guy overall. He likes helping other trainers better themselves, and is willing to help them with a couple battles, be they for practice or serious. He is also quite open and honest with others, even if he is a little lacking in subtlety. Sure, he might say something stupid every now and then, but he will always do his best to make up for it (even if does not realize how it might have upset someone). Above all else, even his belief in the fact that he will one day be the most amazing trainer to walk the land, he believes in treating others right be they Pokémon, humans, or even gijinka.

Despite this outwardly cheerful attitude, however, Haru also suffers from the emotional strain of his family's secret: that his sister, after contracting the virus three years ago, had to get an illegal transfusion to save her life. Thanks to that, he lives in constant fear of Epispect finding out about it for fear that they would kill them all. For all his bravado, he knows he wouldn't stand a chance against their trained killers - many of them gijinka - and this eats away at him constantly. That is why he has a secret agenda he's never revealed to anyone besides his team: not only doe s he want to become a great trainer, but he wants to become one with enough power to oppose even the all-controlling company's forces and protect what he holds dear. Even if he has to make enemies with the city itself.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

H I S T O R Y

• The Hamazaki Dojo, located in the middle-class district of Aether City, has been a fixture in the local community for years; Matsurou Hamazaki founded the training area a good fifty-something years ago before passing it down to his eldest son, Matsuhiko Hamazaki, who in turn became the father of Haruhiko Hamazaki a little over sixteen years ago. From a very early age, Haru was constantly surrounded by both Pokémon - especially his father’s personal team he used to train youngsters taking lessons from him - and those of his father’s students, and as such he has always been just as comfortable around the creatures as he has been with people. Even as a toddler he was a constant presence in the school, which is to this day situated beneath the home where he lives with his father, mother, younger sister, grandpa, and the family’s combined Pokémon. It was always a very lively house, and one the young child absolutely adored living in, despite the constant chaos. The only really bad part about it was that there were always several Pokémon set aside that his father would raise specifically to sell, which meant that there was no shortage of sad goodbyes for the boy when their new trainers came calling to pick them up and take them away. But other than that it was a wonderful place to live, and one that sparked his desire to be a trainer himself before he even had the words and knowledge to describe such feelings.
  
  
• Unfortunately, running wild with the Pokémon in the dojo could not last forever and as with most children Haru began attending school at the age of three. Suddenly having to sit still in a place with no Pokémon and only people was a huge shock to his system, and you might say that he never truly adjusted to the classroom environment. In fact, even after he began attending class, he still thought of Pokémon pretty much all day, every day, and it showed in the way his teachers often complained about his performance in class. For his mother’s part, she hoped that it was just a phase that he would grow out of to become a more normal student like most of his classmates, but the passing years actually seemed to make his disinterest worse as he grew closer and closer to being old enough to actually keep and train a Pokémon of his own. Really, the only “classes” he ever paid adequate attention to were the classes he sat in at his dad’s dojo, where he quickly picked up the basics of training. By the time he was old enough to actually take part in them himself, using Pokémon he borrowed from his father, he was quite capable of holding his own in mock-battles against students older than himself even though he often forgot the importance of anything other than attacking and tasted defeat quite a few times because of it. Still, his father was nothing but encouraging, although he did stress the importance of refining his battle strategy to include defensive and strategic moves as well. As for his mother, she simply shook her head and made sure to send the boy up to his room to do his homework, followed by a warning that smart Pokémon would not follow a stupid trainer.
  
  By the time he was about eleven years old, Haru had grown into a child completely enchanted by the trainer lifestyle. He was constantly asking his father’s other students for help, declaring them his rivals, and planning what his future team would be like in his head. If the boy ever read any books or watched any informative television, it was not because of schoolwork, but to absorb information that might be useful to him as a trainer someday. He learned how to care for the creatures, what to feed certain types, and how to better communicate with them. But while he might have learned some of the technical parts of being a trainer, he also started picking up some rather bad habits as well. For one thing, thanks to being able to use his father’s pre-trained Pokémon up until this point in the dojo, he became used to winning and often bragged about his so-called skills. Additionally, he started ditching classes at school in order to go out and train using those borrowed Pokémon. With this false confidence fueling him, he starting throwing himself and his father’s Pokémon into more and more dangerous situations. There was just something about the thrill of fighting your hardest against a tough foe and coming out on top that set his fighting spirit on fire, and over time even his daytime trips to the park to pick fights with bugs and low-level fliers became too ordinary for him, too boring. Eventually, that lead him to explore places a boy his age really had no business being.
  
  
• At first, he kept to places in the city: a trip to the Canopy here and there along with runs to the catacombs beneath the city to prove how tough he was. If not for his father’s Pokémon looking out for him, he probably would have died out there, either at the claws of a wild Pokémon or something far worse. But he remained oblivious to these dangers, convinced that his dad’s Pokémon could get them out of any tangle easy as pie. As with all secrets, however, this one was bound to come to light eventually...and did, one day soon after Haru turned twelve and made one of the stupidest decisions in his entire life. Bored of the city, he decided to sneak outside of Aether and train out in the wilderness like real trainers did. Somehow the determined young boy managed it, and for the first time in his life saw the Wasteland that lay beyond the city’s borders. Most people would have been put off by the dead, dusty earth, but he thought it was one of the most awesome things ever because he was actually outside just like he had always imagined. After admiring the sparse scenery for a few moments, he immediately set off in search of tough opponents with the Combusken he borrowed from his dad, and even managed to pull off a string of minor victories. But then, suddenly, everything changed when he picked a fight with the wrong Pokémon. A Donphan to be exact. Even Combusken knew that charging at the armored Pokémon was a bad idea but Haru insisted on it anyway - and soon regretted it when the enraged ground-type Bulldozed his Combusken into unconsciousness. Because the fire and fighting-type had been the only Pokémon with him at the time, he was forced to flee for his life, the Donphan hot on his trail. It probably would have gotten him, too, if not for a nearby trainer who heard the commotion and after seeing such a young kid in danger quickly dispatched the Donphan with her Vileplume. She then took it upon herself to march the boy home and inform his parents just what the idiot of a kid was doing out there in the wasteland.
  
  Needless to say, his parents were pissed.
  
  While they had known for some time about his class-skipping habits, they never dreamed that their son would actually be stupid enough to go outside the city on his own, even with one of his father’s Pokémon with him. What’s more, he really did not seem to understand just how serious the situation was. His father, usually cool-headed, even yelled at the boy, asking him what he would have done if he had died out there, and how the rest of the family would have felt about that. His mother, on the other hand, suggested that they ban him from ever becoming a trainer after pulling such a stunt, and for a while it looked like his father might actually agree. That, rather than the realization that he had actually done anything wrong, was what broke Haru. In mere seconds, the once boastful boy was a begging, teary-eyed mess, pleading with his parents not to keep him away from Pokémon forever. If he could not have that, he insisted, he would have absolutely nothing worth living for anymore. It was your typical childish fit, but in end, his parents relented and relaxed his punishment...though they were by no means letting him off the hook completely.
  
  
• Their new terms were as such: for an entire year, he was only to use Pokémon in the dojo under his father or grandfather’s supervision, and was only allowed to partake in lessons once a week. Cleaning the dojo would also be his responsibility, and he would not be allowed to use any water Pokémon to make it easier on himself. Finally, when the year was up, he would not be getting his access to his father’s Pokémon renewed. Instead, his parents would chose a single Pokémon to give him, one that he would have to raise from scratch all on his own. It was that promise, along with a stubborn, childish desire to prove to his parents that he could take any punishment they dished out for him (other than barring him from ever becoming a trainer, of course) that kept him going for the year of boring schooling, extra chores, and supervised training.
  
  Did the experience change him much as a person? Not a lot; at thirteen, he was still a reckless kid who still enjoyed boasting when he did a good job, but it did teach him to work hard for what he wanted. That made receiving his first true Pokémon, Mizune the Totodile, all the more rewarding. They bonded quickly, despite the water-type's penchant for landing her trainer in troublesome situations - or maybe because of it! Which was for the best, as he was going to need that emotional support all too soon when his little sister suddenly fell ill one day not long after.
  
  It started out with just a cough and fever, but when days went by and her health continued to decline sharply it was very obvious that her illness was more than just a simple cold. Indeed, she had the bad luck to catch the virus, forcing the family to drop everything in an effort to find a way to rescue their youngest human member's life. Legal transfusions were out of their means, as their dojo didn't draw big enough crowds of students to make it a booming business. They just didn't have the money for it, and in desperation they reached out for the Black Market. It only took them a few days to acquire a sample of Audino DNA and an underground doctor who would perform the operation, and despite the odds the little girl pulled through and made a swift recovery thanks to the natural healing abilities granted to her as a gijinka.
  
  Keeping the operation a secret was fairly easy, for the most part. The dojo had closed for a week, but they were able to explain it away easily enough to their students. It was a stroke of luck that Haru's sister had been blue-eyed and pink-haired since birth, which meant her appearance barely changed from the Audino DNA's influence, which saved her from drawing much suspicion in school after her absence. But Haru knew better than to let anyone know the truth...if they did, it could bring their whole world down. The boy who once thought he would never be able to get along with his little sister suddenly found himself growing very protective of her, and decided to throw himself into his training with more intensity than ever in order to protect her and the rest of their family from Epispect's clutches should they ever discover the truth. Unfortunately, even over the last three years and all the changes they brought with them, he is still as far as ever from reaching his goal. But as time goes by and the threat of his his family's secret being discovered grows ever more dire, he is now more certain than ever that he wants to become stronger; with so much potentially on the line - including his own life - he has to.
  
  
  

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

P L A Y E R I N F O

★ OOC NAME: Cori. :3
★ AGE: Twenty-one and a half-ish.
★ OTHER CHARACTERS: Kouki Hidaka and Cornelius Clarent. If I ever get my post counts up, I’ll finish Ceci and Raze.
★ RP SAMPLE:

-dons Kamina shades- WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

★ template was made for wretches and kings, do not steal ★

[/td][/tr][/table][/style]

CLEAR AND TRUE

[/center]

[ress]

ACCEPTED!

Welcome to W&K!

[style=width: 360px; text-align: center; font-family: times new roman; font-size: 12px]
TOTODILE!
level 5 ; female ; torrent
scratch, leer