[RH][Rider/Ruler]Kusanagi Yoko

[attr="class","paracontentfull"]What do you call someone who plunges the entire world into chaos? You call them Kusanagi Yoko. This is the tale of the woman that plunged the entire world into the Infinite Grail War.

But before we even get into that part there was more to her story. Though history might not recognize the name Kusanagi Yoko, she does have a tale that belongs in the storybooks. Quite simply it is just not a history from the past. Kusanagi Yoko is one of those curious cases in the Grail War that has been summoned not from the past, but from the future.

The story of Yoko starts off normally enough for her time. She was born off Earth in one of the many space colonies of her time. Until she reached fairly late into her teens her story was unremarkable. She had her parents, a home, a school, and all the things that would make for a fairly normal childhood aside from the technology level of her time.

Once she was sixteen years old though, something changed the course of her life forever. Perhaps it is because she is from the future, and that future is up in the air, but the details seem to change every time she thinks of them. Perhaps her colony was attacked? Maybe she was taken as a slave and forced to be a soldier? No, no, it was definitely that she was recruited to fight in the army through normal means.

Details are always fuzzy, but the themes remain the same. From that moment her life became one that was full of strife. Yoko was recruited as a pilot for the Gundam project and rapidly became an ace. She fought on behalf of her home. She fought for her ideals. She fought for peace. It matters not. What is certain is that she piloted her giant robot, the Alloy Gundam, and she was damn good at it. Between her one of a kind machine and her incredible skill as a pilot she was able to change the course of her tragic circumstances almost single handedly.

Her timeline continues out into the future, but she is best known in her prime at the height of that conflict.

During the Sixth Grail War, Yoko was summoned by Hibiki as the Servant Rider. Throughout the war she had plenty of feats and accomplishments, but all of them fall short in the light of her penultimate failure. As the last servant standing at the end of the Sixth Grail War Yoko had done something that many of the servants before her had done: she attempted to destroy the Grail. Where those who came before her succeeded in destroying the lesser grails, but in this case the Greater Grail itself had manifested and was shattered by the self destruction of Yoko’s Noble Phantasm.

This action was the start of the Infinite Grail war. In the short time since that day Yoko and her master have taken a commanding role after being recruited by Chaldea. Their experience in the Sixth Grail War is being leveraged for Chaldea’s operations to destroy any and all anomalies that have been detected as a result of the remnants of the Greater Grail. To put that in more plain terms, her goal at Chaldea is to collect all the shards of the Greater Grail so that they can eventually be properly obliterated. If you stand in her way, you are an enemy of Chaldea.

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Yoko’s fighting style started off very rough around the edges. The base of her kit comes from training in mixed martial arts, but that training was so inconsistent, and she was so young, that she didn’t really learn much more than how to throw a punch properly. The parts of her fighting style that are still growing are her newfound practices of Kenpo Karate and Kendo. She is still only adequate in both of these skills, but they still give her enough to hold her own against any mortal opponent. On top of that, she’s also gotten decent at analyzing a battle and dealing with the pain from getting punched in the face over and over when she misses blocks.

The elements of Kenpo Karate, especially at such a low level, are incredibly simplistic. Kenpo Karate has both offensive and defensive components, but the focus of this art is on a strong defense. In traditional karate, karateka usually defend by just throwing as hard of a block as they can against a strike. In Kenpo Karate, fighters are taught to direct the force of an attack away, similar to how Aikido does it. The difference between Kenpo Karate and Aikido is that Kenpo Karate still stops their attack eventually, whereas Aikido aims to let their force continue onwards in an attempt to throw them off balance. As far as strikes go, Kenpo usually prefers linear attacks that flow out of a defensive action. By sticking to a defensive approach, they are able to wait for openings in their opponent’s guard, or even create them with a well-executed block.

Kendo is a more neutral discipline in terms of offense and defense than Kenpo Karate. The Japanese art of the sword focuses more on perfecting form than on actual combat usefulness. While this is less true at upper levels, novices like Yoko have just been forced to drill the basics over and over again. Truth be told, she’s never even been in a spar with a sword in hand yet. Regardless of that, she still knows exactly how to swing a sword in any given direction pretty much perfectly. She’s also relatively solid when it comes to basic blocks and parries. Her knowledge of Kendo is a good building block, but her own style will emerge as she grows stronger.

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More recently, those skills have fallen to the wayside a bit. Instead, Yoko has begun to train herself in forms of combat that are more effective with her superhuman abilities. Kendo and Kenpo Karate, while not bad styles, just aren’t good enough to keep up with bodies moving at that high of a speed. The young servant has shifted her studies of martial arts to a style based in Krav Maga, and she has adapted her sword style to be a far less rigid one. She can still fall back on the basic styles of Kendo, but she always has her own unique style as well. We’ll get to that style in a bit, but first, let us discuss Krav Maga.

Her martial art was not just a style, but a way of thinking. It was more a philosophy than anything else. This philosophy can accurately be summed up by a single quote from Bruce Lee. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” While the oft-filmed martial artist has developed his own style, Yoko merely uses this philosophy as a guide to her interpretation of Krav Maga. There are many other parts of the Krav Maga philosophy, but those will be addressed later.

This part of her philosophy is simple because it can all be boiled down to a two ideas. Be fluid in your movements; avoid rigidity. Be creative in your attacks and defenses; never stick to pre-set patterns. These two principles are the core of Yoko’s interpretation of Krav Maga. There are some moves she repeats to be sure, as it is hard to vary a kick or jab all that much, but she does her best to never repeat the same attack in a given fight at least. Krav Maga allows for a great amount of variety, so this isn’t terribly hard. It covers kicks, punches, elbow and knee strikes, grappling, and several ways to prevent damage. This versatility makes it far easier to stay unpredictable.

However, that is not the most important part of Krav Maga. This style, at its core, is a ruthless style meant to utterly break your opponent. When you Yoko how she would block a punch the answer usually involves shattering her opponent's bones. If you ask her to open a locked door, she will kick it into dust and splinters. Krav Maga may be ruthless, but it is not without sophistication. It has many practiced techniques, some of which are far more elegant than others, but it focuses on not wasting movement with pointlessly flashy attacks.

There are also a few of Yoko’s own thoughts incorporated into this theory. One of the major changes she has made from standard Krav Maga is applying it to a three dimensional battlefield. Without having a tutor to really teach her the way to fight in three dimensions, Yoko turned to an old childhood hero: Son Goku. Real or not, Goku was one of the greatest hand to hand combatants of all time. Ironically though, the adaptation can be summed up with another quote from Bruce Lee.

A martial artist who drills exclusively to a set pattern of combat is losing his freedom. He is actually becoming a slave to a choice pattern and feels that the pattern is the real thing. It leads to stagnation because the way of combat is never based on personal choice and fancies, but constantly changes from moment to moment, and the disappointed combatant will soon find out that his "choice routine" lacks pliability. There must be a "being" instead of a "doing" in training. One must be free. Instead of complexity of form, there should be simplicity of expression.

Yoko’s greatest addition was the removal of limitations. While the core principles of Krav Maga are helpful, they are also limiting. By choosing to ignore those and simply follow the flow of battle, true style and skill can be found. The main way in which Yoko does that is by abusing the heck out of three dimensional combat fields and movement techniques. By doing things like using a speed enhancement technique mid-kick, she can catch most opponents completely off guard. Most opponents can keep up with her basic speed alright, but predicting a flurry of speed enhanced techniques in the middle of an otherwise normal attack combination is hard to manage. Because of her adequate magical capacity pool, she doesn’t hesitate to do things like spam these basic techniques. As a result, the unrelenting force of her attacks can wear down her opponents quite a bit.

Aside from that bit, Yoko’s own ideas mostly come in the form of adding other ranges to accommodate the addition of weapons to a fight. The modified list of ranges is this: gun, claymore, longsword, kicking, dagger, punching, trapping, and grappling. Again, this list is in descending amounts of distance. Yoko has dedicated a good amount of training to the use of various bladed weapons, and their use has stayed true to the philosophy of Krav Maga. The techniques at the dagger range are quite similar to those at the punching range. The difference is only one of a few inches, but those few inches of reach can be used to your advantage easily. Fighting with a dagger against an unarmed opponent means you can easily press an advantage through being the one with a weapon. Fighting someone who is using a longer blade means you can overpower them through sheer speed, and you can stay close enough that their blade will become awkward to wield.

The dagger is generally a backup weapon, and not any wise fighter’s first choice. The longsword, however, is one that most will happily wield at a moment’s notice. The longsword should be used at a range just beyond that of kicking range. Again, this difference is only one of inches, but those inches are incredibly important. Kendo’s swordsmanship was too rigid. It was fast and precise, but it was easy to parry. This swordsmanship is still not perfect, but it is being developed around a fluid-like style. Yoko has taken to referring to this style as “The Flowing Blade School.” Too bad she doesn’t have any pupils.

The flowing blade follows the aforementioned philosophy of being like water, and merely treats the sword as an extension of one’s body. The basics of this style aren’t anything incredibly spectacular. All the basics really cover is the simplest forms of attack and defense. They follow the principles of Krav Maga in the Flowing Blade style via a focus on simple, direct, efficient movements of the sword. There are no faints or flourishes, except when Yoko breaks her own rules of course. This style usually only does what must be done. The attacks are simple, but they are hard to defend against because of their simplicity. They have a minimal amount of wind-up, so they are hard to see coming. The defenses are merely an extension of Krav Maga’s principle of simultaneous parries and hits. Rather than block, Yoko will parry, allowing her to overcome superior strength if necessary, and deliver a kick at the same time in many cases.

This style becomes even more deadly when the flow transitions between multiple styles or weapons. In Yoko’s case, the deadliest way to make use of this flow is when she is using a mix of her fist and a sword. She can clash blades with her opponent, and during that clash, she can more easily land a hand to hand blow. Dodging a point-blank punch or grapple is far from easy when you're focused on the weapon in her hand. There are also combinations that can be done one after the other, but they generally lack any preset sequence. This is a fighting style that relies on constant innovation to remain unpredictable, and preset combinations would ruin that.

One of the things that makes Flowing Blade complex is that it varies greatly based on length of the weapon being wielded. It is not a single style of swordsmanship, but rather a way of making a weapon into an extension of your own body. All movements of the Flowing Blade style are done in a way that they seem natural and effortless. This is a great difference from a style like Kendo which is horribly rigid. However, this style is even more powerful when performed at a high speed. So long as the user of Flowing Blade style has at least Rank B- speed and Rank B in Swords skill, to most people, their sword will be blurred, leaving a trail of afterimages behind it that appear like ripples in water, growing ever more faded as they are farther from the blade. As speed increases further beyond Rank B-, the trail grows in length, but it doesn’t obstruct vision or anything like that. This most basic feat of the Flowing Blade style does not inherently do anything dangerous, but it makes the style look a bit cooler at least. To those who aren’t very fast, and aren’t trained in swords, that aspect of the style alone might be enough to scare them off though.

One of the other parts of the Flowing Blade style that makes it so difficult to master is that it a style that can be used one-handed, two-handed, or while dual wielding. Yoko is adequate at fighting with two blades at once, but there is still have a long way to go. She can execute all maneuvers that she could with a single hand equally well with both hands, but they still often act as two separate entities, rather than a combined fluid one. Her responses need to become more unified and flowing, but that will come with time. She has already gotten a good hang on utilizing the simultaneous attack and defense principle within Flowing Blade, so it is still a fearsome style even in its infancy.

On top of that, she’s also mellowed out quite a bit. After taking up meditation, her mind has become far calmer than it used to be. In the past, she was borderline ADHD, but now she is more calm and reserved in all the things she does. No matter how insane the odds, she’ll be able to remain calm and logical.

There’s also a further mental part of Yoko’s kit: her ability to analyze the abilities of others. Her capabilities in this field vary a good bit based on how predictable the opponent is, but not in the usual way. For most, it’s based on how common the ability, or how simple the mechanics behind it are. For Yoko, her analysis is more effective if she can clearly related it to a heroic legend. For something like predicting where someone is going to appear out of a high speed movement technique, she’ll usually guess behind her, just because that’s the cliché move that everyone in anime always uses. She can also figure out how to counter powers if they are from a type of media that she is interested in.

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Overall Ability: [Alloy Gundam] Rank A-
Alloy Gundam is just what every kid wanted growing up, their own giant robot! Wait, you didn't want one? Well Yoko sure did, and she has one now. Alloy Gundam is a towering 75 feet tall and comes with a number of fancy built in systems. Some of them are explained by the properties below, and some of them are explained by the perks. Alloy Gundam is fit with a full-on artificial; intelligence. However, as a robot it doesn't feel pain or get hindered by wounds (see Battle Continuation Rank Aand Pain Tolerance Rank A). While this means it can act independently, it can also open a hatch in its chest to let Yoko inside it, allowing her to act as a pilot. Through direct contact, Yoko and Alloy Gundam can share mana back and forth freely, just the same as a Master and Servant.

What it does have is the ability to carry quite a bit of weaponry. By default Alloy Gundam starts with a dozen swords and four shields available. These all shrink down to minuscule size and expand rapidly when deployed. The other unique edge in the basics of Alloy Gundam's existence is that it moves with hydraulics and thrusters. This means that it can operate in three dimensions thanks to the flight of its thrusters and it is also effectively immune to paralysis abilities. Paralysis will still lock up the hydraulics as those are its "muscles" but that wouldn't stop the thrusters all over its body. Petrification, however, would still do the trick.

The sheer size of Alloy Gundam also poses a significant challenge to most fighters. Many attacks simply aren't at a large enough scale to damage Alloy Gundam the same way they would against a human-sized opponent. If an attack does not have enough size to inflict the area of damage it normally would then the wound dealt to Alloy Gundam may be downgraded in rank or number as a result. For example, if someone cast Firebolt at Alloy Gundam (a fire spell the size of a single car garage that normally deals moderate damage) in most cases it would only leave a single wound because it wouldn't be large enough to hit more than one part of Alloy Gundam.

Alloy Gundam Stats:

Strength: A-

Speed: B+

Endurance: B-

Magical Power: E-

Magical Capacity: D+

Noble Phantasm: A-

Alloy Gundam Skills:

Skill 1: Weapon - C - Swords

Skill 2: Weapon - C - Shields

Skill 3: Pain Tolerance - A

Skill 4: Bravery - A

Skill 5 - Battle Continuation - A

Skill 6: Mana Detection - B

Overall Ability: [Alloy Gundam] Rank A-

Noble Phantasm Property 1 - [GN Drive] - Rank A - Continuously Active
The GN Drive is the powerplant that drives Alloy Gundam. It pulls mana out of the environment in order to continuously power Alloy Gundam. As a Rank A property it is just as strong as Territory Creation Rank A, fueling Alloy Gundam with 100 mana per post.

Noble Phantasm Property 2 - [Psychoframe System] - Rank C - Continuously Active
As far as actual properties go, this is the closest thing that Yoko has to a normal offensive or defensive maneuver. The Psychoframe System is a means of telekinetic control over her weapons. Up to 4 of her armaments, be they swords, shields, or guns, can be controlled by the Psychoframe System at a time. All things controlled in this way have strength and speed as if wielded by Alloy Gundam. Their position can be sensed as if an ethereal arm was holding them, and is felt as naturally as the swords in Alloy Gundam's other hands.

Noble Phantasm Property 3 - [Self Destruct] - Rank A - Technique
In truly desperate times Alloy Gundam can overload its GN Drive to cause a massive explosion. Downside? Alloy Gundam just exploded, and is rendered unusable for the remainder of the thread. In extreme cases it can be revived in that thread, but it would take one week to recover. The explosion is Rank EX+ and categorized as an Anti-City level Noble Phantasm. The reason this power can be attained on a Rank A property is since it completely negates the Noble Phantasm after use, and is likely to kill Yoko in the process.

Noble Phantasm Property 4 - [Downsize] - Rank E - Technique
Sometimes bigger isn't better. This property allows Alloy Gundam to shrink down to the size of a suit of armor that Yoko can wear rather than being a giant robot. It can function autonomously in this mode or as a suit of armor. Given that it arguably loses the advantage of being frickin huge, this ability is only Rank E. When being used as armor, for purposes of a clash, the stats used are whoever is higher between Yoko and Alloy Gundam on offensive attacks, and always Alloy Gundam's for defensive purposes.

[attr="class","paracontentfull]Yoko is incapable of performing Magecraft.

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[attr="class","paracontentfull]+15 stat ranks