MIKAN, Akira

Sora

<<NAME>>

Akira Mikan

<<AGE>>

Fifteen

<<GENDER>>

Female

<<NATIONALITY>>

Japanese

<<APPEARANCE>>

Standing at 5'11", Akira is rather noticeably tall, especially for a girl her age. She has black hair, which she generally prefers to keep short. She doesn't do much with it other than wash and shampoo it, so it's usually a bit messy and unkempt, a loose strand sticking out here or there. Her eyes are brown. Overall, Akira looks very tomboyish, having an athletic yet slender frame. Much to her chagrin, she's rather lacking in the chest department, only able to fill out an A cup.

As far as clothing is concerned, this is where her tomboyish-ness is most obvious. In the real world, she has very few, if any, outfits that could be considered "girly". Instead, she wears clothes one would most expect to see on a boy around her age. T-shirts, jeans and the like. In fact, because of her already boyish looks and depending on what she wears, it's not all that uncommon for others to initially mistake her for a boy when first looking at her. Granted, her voice mostly gives it away, so it's not like it's a constant thing.

Click here for an image of her

<<PERSONALITY>>

Positive:

• Enthusiastic: Whether it's helping out her friends, cooking for someone, or fighting a random monster or two, this girl is definitely not lacking in enthusiasm. In almost everything she does, she puts her all into it, and then some.
  
  
• Optimistic: For a while, she was pretty shaken upon the revelation of the Death Game. Anyone would be. However, now that she has gotten over it and started actually doing something, she has decided to make the best of the situation. Despite all odds, she remains hopeful that someone will eventually conquer the game.
  
  
• Friendly: She greets everyone she meets with a smile, and, unless they give her a reason not to, she pretty much treats everyone as if they were a childhood friend or something else along the same lines. That said, you really don't want to give her a reason not to.
  
  
• Trustworthy: You could tell this girl your deepest and darkest secrets, and be able to sleep comfortably knowing that, unless it became absolutely necessary to tell someone (it would more or less have to be a matter of life or death), she would keep it no matter what. Additionally, if any friends need her to do something and it's within her abilities, she'll see it through to the end.
  
  
• Focused: Akira shows an uncanny ability to put her emotions aside and focus on whatever task(s) she has in front of her. Thankfully, she isn't the type to become obsessed, so she knows when to stop and take a break when she needs to.

Negative

• Unforgiving: Usually, it takes a lot to make Akira hate someone. It's difficult, but not impossible. If someone were unlucky enough to land on Akira's bad side, she's likely to remain bitter toward them for a very long time. If they show themselves to truly regret what they did and actively seek to atone for it, then she may ease up...even then, however, it'll still probably take a while for her to completely forgive them.
  
  
• Overactive Yuri Goggles: If she notices so much as a slight hint of a bond between two girls, Akira will find herself having wild fantasies about them that make their relationship seem far more intimate than it really is. While this isn't really anything bad, per se, she does tend to have a weird look on her face, thus leading to a potentially awkward situation. More often than not, she simply ends up embarrassing herself
  
  
• Awkward With Romance: When in the presence of a girl she finds to be pretty or beautiful, she gets a little fidgety, and is rather easily flustered by anything they say or do. This goes doubly for any girl she might actually have a crush on. Because of this, it's almost always painfully obvious when she does have feelings for someone, regardless of how much she tries to deny it.
  
  
• Can Be Reckless: Akira doesn't always put much thought into her actions. This isn't to say that she'd go charging a boss by herself with nothing but her sword. She's not insane. Still, there are times when her enthusiasm and confidence overrules common sense. That said, if she's among friends, it shouldn't take too much effort to talk her out of doing something foolish, and she'll usually back down if she feels that something is amiss.
  
  
• Self-conscious: When it comes to her height and overall boyish appearance, Akira is less than enthusiastic...especially when one considers her age. While she has begrudgingly come to accept it, there is still a large part of her that wishes she was smaller and a little girlier. This also leads to her being a bit jealous of those who are really cute and/or well-endowed, though she does her best not to let it make her bitter.

Likes

• Pretty girls (extra points if they're well-endowed)
  
• Cute stuffed animals (especially fond of cats)
  
• Anime and video games
  
• Anything related to yuri
  
• Spending time with her friends and helping them out when/however she can

Dislikes

• Rude people
  
• Having to sit in one place for a long time
  
• Bullies
  
• Parrots (see below)
  
• Sour-tasting foods.

Other Facts

• All of her Sword Arts have some sort of wind-related theme in their name...some may find this slightly ironic, since most don't usually associate giant swords with the wind element.
  
• Akira's favorite foods are nachos with ground beef and Hawaiian pizza (pizza with ham, pineapple and bacon, for those who don't know)
  
• Her least favorite foods are pretty much anything with lemon in it, with the sole exception of lemon poppy seed cake.
  
• Akira is prone to easily developing crushes on older girls, though she tends to get over it quickly if it begins to look like nothing is going to come of it. Despite what this might imply, it does not mean she won't ever fall for someone closer to her own age...she just won't fall as quickly
  
• Akira is terrified of parrots...it's kind of a long story, but let's just say she had a really bad day at a pet store when she was little.

<<HISTORY>>

Akira was born in a relatively small town in Japan, though they were just a stone's throw away from a major city, so it wasn't as though they were out in the middle of nowhere. Either way, her mother was well-known as a great chef, even owning her own restaurant, while her father had a job as a teacher, and commuted back and forth between home and the aforementioned city. While far from wealthy, they made enough money between the two of them that they were able to live fairly comfortably. As a result, Akira's childhood ended up being a relatively happy one, if not a bit interesting.

For as long as anyone can remember, Akira was quite the tomboy...not just in looks, but in personality as well. She was always "one of the boys", and was always asking for action figures instead of dolls. This isn't to say she didn't have any female friends, of course. Still, for the most part, her group of friends consisted largely of boys, who far outnumbered the girls. And yet, she still showed her feminine side at times. She liked to collect cute stuffed animals, for one, and had a bit of a weakness for kittens. Of course, with "boys being boys", she often got teased whenever this happened, and it reached a point that she had started to resent her tomboyish nature. Try as she might, she had a hard time shaking this nature, with all of her attempts to be more "girly" failing miserably...old habits die hard. Especially when you've had them for most of your life.

At some point during her adolescence, Akira found herself getting into anime and video games, mostly enjoying fantasy settings and RPGs. However, there was also one other thing she became fascinated with. Yuri. Or, to be more specific, anime and manga that depicted romantic and/or sexual relationships between two or more females in some way or another. To this day, Akira couldn't tell you why she was drawn to it the way she was. She just was. A couple of years later, Akira even found herself becoming attracted to other girls. Whether it's the result of this fascination or she had always felt this way and was only just then realizing it is anyone's guess. Either way, this became a prominent aspect of her overall personality, defining a large part of who she is today

Fast-forward a another year or so. Akira had, about a month and a half ago, turned fifteen, and a day she had been eagerly awaiting had finally arrived. A game that she had been following for months was finally released...Sword Art Online. She had been restlessly following the game since it was first announced, and was one of the many people who volunteered to be a beta tester. Unfortunately, she didn't make the cut, and was stuck waiting for the official release. As the release of the game came closer, she begged her parents almost nonstop for a Nerve Gear and a copy of the game. After all, her birthday hadn't been too long ago, and she had made a bit of a killing with all of the games and DVDs they got her. Still, they gave in, with the understanding that it would be considered a very early Christmas present. She was more than okay with this.

Once she got the game set up and ready to go, Sora couldn't wait to get started. Even as she was in the process of creating her character, she let out a few squeals of glee, even though she had a bit of trouble deciding on her starting Skills. Once her character, whom she named 'Sora' after a favorite anime character of hers, was finished, she set off. For the most part, she spent her first few hours acclimating herself with the game, figuring out how everything works and wandering around the starting area to get a feel for where everything was. She even made a few friends in the process, and was already making plans to form a party with them when they had more time to go out and explore the outside world. Her plan was that she'd sign off for the night, then officially start the game the in the morning.

There was one tiny problem though. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find the "Log Out" button. Disgruntled, Akira assumed it must have been a glitch of some sort...but things only got worse from there. After a forced teleportation brought her back to the starting area, she looked around, noticeably confused...especially when she realized that she wasn't the only one who was brought here. In fact, from the looks of all the people, it might as well have been all ten-thousand players. And yet, this was only the beginning. A evil-looking figure appeared in the sky, introducing himself as Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the game. Sora smiled slightly, assuming this to be an overly-elaborate welcome. This smile faded as he went on to say that the Log Out button disappearing wasn't a glitch. They were trapped in the game...at least, until someone could clear it

However, this was quickly followed by what was easily the most shocking news. Not only was everyone trapped in the game, but, should a player's HP bar reach 0, the Nerve Gear that they werere hooked up to would destroy their brain, killing them in real life as well. It would even happen if someone from the outside tried to manually disconnect them, as the unfortunate friends or family members of at least two-hundred players found out the hard way. So they were literally trapped in this game. Finally, just to add insult to injury, everyone was given an item, all of which were automatically activated. This item proceeded to change everyone's avatars to reflect their real-world appearance. Much to Sora's chagrin, she had gone out of her way to make her avatar look cute and girly and even somewhat busty...only for all of that effort to be wasted.

Understandably, Akira was devastated by all of this. Naturally, she was hardly the only one...by the time this announcement had been made, at least two hundred people were already dead...later, she would discover that the friends she had just made were among them. It took her a while for all of this to sink in...and once it did, she fell into despair. For several weeks, it seemed hopeless. Akira stayed in the safety of the city walls, too afraid to step out and face any danger. Over time, however, Akira grew sick of living in fear. Occasionally, people would pass through who had been in many battles and managed to survive, inspiring her. Thus, after months of sitting around and doing nothing, she finally gathered the courage to actually start playing the game...if she was stuck here, she might as well try to make the most of it.

SKILLS

<<CORE SKILLS>>	<<SUPPLEMENTARY SKILLS>>	<<EXTRA SKILLS>>
>> two-handed sword >> light metal armor >> armorsmithing >> parry	>>n/a >>n/a >>n/a >>n/a	>>n/a >>n/a

SWORD ARTS

CYCLONE BLADE. two-handed sword
3 Strikes, 0 Specials, 75% Speed, 75% Power

Akira raises her sword, holding it out with the blade facing upward until the blade emits a bright green glow, signifying that the attack is ready. Once the system takes over, Akira will charge toward a single opponent and swing her blade in a wide arc, striking them once. Instead of stopping there, however, she spins her body around, using the momentum from the first attack to perform second, then repeating the process once more to strike them a third and final time.

SWEEPING GALE. two-handed sword
1 Strikes, 2 Specials, 60% Speed, 90% Power

Akira lowers her sword, pointing the tip of the blade to the ground behind her until the blade emits a bright green glow, signifying that the attack is ready. From there, she takes a step forward and swings her sword in a wide arc. Because of this, she will be able to hit up to five opponents with this attack, so long as they are within striking range of her sword

<<makoto kikuchi from the idolm@ster as akira mikan>>

<<character by sora>>

<<profile template by bunny>>