Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8460442" data-attributes="member: 30538">Hirai Heizo<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-fXtFG62/0/7da6932d/S/MV5BMmQxOWVjMDUtOGUxMC00NTRhLWFmMjktNzVjZmQzNGRjNWRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDQxNjcxNQ%40%40._V1_-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The years 2006 to 2009 were a brief golden age for teenaged detectives in Japan, with many famous examples, Hasegawa Naru and Asagiri Sayo not least among them. But the foremost among them, in terms of celebrity if not necessarily in talent, was Futaba Shotaro, sometimes called the Newtype Detective. He had no supernatural powers, but his wits often seemed nearly diabolical at times, even though more cynical observers noted that his reputation owed quite a bit to clever media manipulation and to the fact that his older brother, Yukiyoshi, was employed by the government in some rather nebulous capacity. (Predictably, it was sometimes claimed that Yukiyoshi was the smarter brother.)Regardless, the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and Shotaro vanished while pursuing an investigation in 2008. More than a year later, Yukiyoshi announced to the world that his younger brother had not reported back since his disappearance, and with no further sightings of him, he was declared dead in 2015. Much like some of his contemporaries, he had clearly encountered some situation that a young person was ill-equipped to handle, and suffered a tragic fate.That was true, but the tragic fate was a stranger one than the general public ever learned. While investigating certain crimes associated with the Tanaka Financial Group, Shotaro was captured and interrogated, then used as a test subject for an experimental toxin designed to cause death and extremely accelerated decomposition. Some unknown factor in his bloodstream prevented his death, but he aged some sixty years in the course of a minute. Fortunately, his mind was left intact, and he was able to feign senility so that his captors chose to release him rather than studying him to determine what had gone wrong.In the aftermath, and the years since then, Shotaro has built a new reputation for himself as an elderly private investigator under the alias Hirai Heizo. His primary goal, of course, is to uncover the secrets of the Tanaka Group and expose them to the harsh light of public attention, and would ideally like to discover that they have some method of reversing the changes that were done to him. Heizo is aware that the latter is probably a mirage, however; he has noted that his body hasn't aged naturally since he was turned into an old man, which indicates that he has become a superpower of sorts.While Heizo has trained himself into a crack shot with a meta-taser pistol, he's not any sort of combatant otherwise. For those occasions when he needs physical assistance, he has recruited karateka Fukuen Natsuki, a friend from his youth who is the only person with whom he has shared his terrible secret. While she is by no means a superpower martial artist, she is a very capable bodyguard and medic who takes the task of keeping her boss alive much more seriously than he himself does, and is quite capable of defeating most of the foes that they come across, especially after they've taken a meta-taser shot or two.Heizo has avoided most dealings with the supernatural or superpowered since his transformation, though he recognizes that he's going to eventually need big-league help to bring Tanaka down. He finds it frustrating that after more than a decade, he's still not completely sure what the company is up to, beyond engaging in human experimentation. The best that he's been able to determine is that all their efforts are directed by a small cabal within its Board of Directors who refer to themselves as 'the Vision', who have been active since around the year 2000 but only began the efforts that attracted his attention in early 2006. They don't seem to be connected to Saturn or Axiom, but just what their actual goal is remains a mystery.Fortunately, Heizo loves a mystery.Hirai Heizo -- PL 8Abilities:STR -1 | STA 0 | AGL -1 | DEX 1 | FGT -1 | INT 5 | AWE 4 | PRE 2Powers:Elderly but Unaging: Immunity 1 (aging) - 1 pointAdvantages:Contacts, Equipment 3, Improvised Tools, Jack-of-all-Trades, Sidekick 16, Tracking, Well-informed.Equipment:Meta-Taser (Ranged Affliction 5 [Fortitude; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated) and 5 points of equipment as needed.Skills:Deception 8 (+10), Expertise: History 7 (+12), Expertise: Streetwise 5 (+10), Insight 7 (+11), Investigation 8 (+13), Perception 7 (+11), Persuasion 6 (+8), Ranged Combat: Meta-Taser 6 (+7), Technology 4 (+9).Offense:Initiative -1Unarmed -1 (Close Damage -1)Meta-Taser +7 (Ranged Fortitude 5)Defense:Dodge 5, Parry 3, Fortitude 2, Toughness 0, Will 8Totals:Abilities 18 + Power 1 + Advantages 8 + Skills 29 + Defenses 16 = 88 pointsOffensive PL: 6Defensive PL: 3Resistance PL: 5Skill PL: 8Complications:Justice--Motivation. Old in Body, Young at Heart. Secret Identity.Fukuen Natsuki -- PL 5<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-qgTM3Qc/0/b1ed3a1a/S/69f076272d60317dfae906eb0223b29c-S.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Abilities:STR 2 | STA 2 | AGL 3 | DEX 2 | FGT 5 | INT 1 | AWE 2 | PRE 1Advantages:Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll, Fast Grab, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Improved Trip, Instant Up, Interpose, Power Attack.Skills:Acrobatics 7 (+10), Athletics 6 (+8), Close Combat: Unarmed 3 (+8), Deception 5 (+6), Insight 4 (+6), Intimidation 6 (+7), Perception 6 (+8), Sleight of Hand 7 (+9), Treatment 4 (+5), Vehicles 4 (+6).Offense:Initiative +7Unarmed +8 (Close Damage 2)Defense:Dodge 4, Parry 6, Fortitude 3, Toughness 4/2, Will 6.Totals:Abilities 36 + Advantages 13 + Skills 24 + Defenses 7 = 80 pointsOffensive PL: 5Defensive PL: 5Skill PL: 5Resistance PL: 5Complications:Duty--Motivation. Wants to Improve Her Skills.</blockquote>

Verification