[ PRELUDE ; info ]
Character: Shirayukinomiya Kobushi [白雪宮 拳] AKA Gouriki Banchou [剛力番長]
Series: Kongou Banchou
Timeline: Right before chapter 32.
Wiki Us a Bio/History: Sadly, English wiki has yet to put up a page for this series, but [ around here ] is a snippet on her from the Japanese wiki page.
Elaborate, if necessary:
APPEARANCE:
Take one look, and Gouriki is the a perfect little lady. (If you can first dismiss her alias, of course, as "Gouriki" translates into "Herculean strength".) Short, bright-blond hair kept tucked back with a pair of adorable miniature flower-pins, loosely framing a face with dainty features and huge, clear brown eyes. The black traditional-style Japanese school uniform jacket she's usually wearing easily dwarfs her form, the sleeves engulfing her narrow limbs, the high collar popping up almost up to her nose. Beneath that jacket, she's usually in something easy to move around it -- but still appropriate, of course! A loose (slightly frilly) shirt and the uniform skirt. (Always with a pair of athletic shorts on under that, though. It would be terribly inappropriate if she accidentally flashed someone during all her fighting!)
And the accessories that finish off the entire ensemble are her Salt- and Miso-Chanko that are -- well. Enormous iron bulbs on sticks. No, really. There's something rather odd about watching a petite girl (maybe at 5'0") dragging around these enormous steel behemoths, but -- well. What can you do about it.
HISTORY:
Welcome, everyone, to an alternate Tokyo, where the thing that's currently all the rage is the 23 District Project, a grand experiment being run by Japanese government. And what is this project you ask? -- well. Think of it this way. The nation is slowly slipping, these days, with students refusing to attend school, yakuza groups and gangs on the rise, more people turning towards delinquency, the country starting on the long fall from its original glory. And leaving thing this way just isn't a feasible option, is it? Things must be changed, there must be a solution! And the solution, the government decided, would be to find a powerful, intelligent, charismatic leader to take charge of the country, to start the rebirth of a new Japan!
Grand, eh? The project itself, it goes like this. For each of the 23 districts in Tokyo, the most powerful individual from that area is chosen to represent the district, and they are called a Banchou -- the old-school term referring to traditional gang leaders, men of honor and strength and morals who protect the innocent. (Of course, not all Banchou are as morally upright as the term may imply, but that's a matter to be taken into consideration later.) And -- what do you expect? An enormous city-wide Battle Royale takes place in between the Banchou, with the last standing Banchou snagging the position of "New Leader of Japan." Can you blame the Banchou for being so passionate about this? It's a chance to rule the country!
And dainty little Shirayukinomiya Kobushi-san was chosen as the Banchou for the Minato district. Perhaps rightly so, given her prestigious lineage, immense power, and strong sense of loyalty, and she was quite determined to win the 23 District Project, in order to make the country a more just place. In order to attain that justice, she would defeat the evils in her district, protect the citizens, and create a nation of peace and well-being! Justice!
Of course, these plans went a little awry when a certain individual by the name of Kongou Banchou -- a Banchou only by name, a young man aiming to destroy the 23 Districts Project as a whole -- came and stopped her in the midst of her misaimed attempts to deal out justice, defeating her and effectively unseating her from her position as official Banchou of the Minato District. But -- but really, that was okay! Because after a fight with him, Gouriki realized that Kongou Banchou is a man of justice, a man that she wouldn't mind handing over her title of Banchou too.
And the most recent string of events found her, along with a handful of other Banchou defeated by Kongou Banchou, teaming up against a band of more evil Banchou. In a series of one-on-one controlled matches, Gouriki was paired up with the complex-laden Kangoku Banchou, and after a considerable amount of fighting, the match ended with the battleground collapsing from Gouriki's constant pummeling at the walls. After a moment's consideration, she cheerfully helped Kangoku Banchou escape from the avalanche of falling masonry, and followed close after, scrambling out of the collapsing room into safety -- and found her in the city of Nuadoria, instead.
PERSONALITY:
Dainty, polite, and sweet as pie, Shirayukinomiya-san is a student enrolled in the prestigious St. Veronica Academy, a school seemingly reserved only for the most posh segment of the population. Her manner of speech and her reserved personality are really reminiscent of ladies of the old, all "oh dear"s and "oh my"s and "that won't do!"s, hand to cover mouth in moments of surprise. Indeed, the regular afternoon of her classmates consists of sitting in a tea shop, drinking hand-picked herbal tea to accompany delicate puff pastries and mocha prucari, reading Wordsworth aloud while Saint-Saens plays in the background. And she fits in quite well with this atmosphere, almost perfectly, actually. Show her a chair, and she'll daintily perch on it with legs gathered at the knees and toes pointed -- send a gang of men to woo her, and she'll politely decline them with the sweetest smile you could ever see.
Point her towards any act of injustice, though, and you're in for a hell of a surprise.
Because despite her dainty first impressions, there's a reason that the petite little Shirayukinomiya-san is the Gouriki Banchou in charge of the Minato District. That is, she doesn't hesitate to deal with injustices in a terribly direct manner. "Terribly direct manner" usually boiling down to "hit it until it doesn't move," and her idea of "hit it" is usually enough to reduce concrete to dust. The thing is, it's not that she's particularly stupid, or particularly prone to violence, it's just that she's extremely narrow-minded, and the focal point of her narrow-mindedness is JUSTICE! (In all-caps, it's that important.)
You see, even though (or perhaps because?) Gouriki Banchou is the daughter of the immensely wealthy Shirayukinomiya Financial Group and has presumably been raised in a terribly pampered environment, she refuses to become a spoiled brat -- on the contrary, she's terribly sensitive to other people's pains, and has vowed to use the best of her abilities to assuage the pain that any people may feel, especially if they're innocent. She's a Banchou, of course she has to defend the innocent citizens of the district, it's her duty! Evil must be defeated!
Which is all nice, really. The only problem is that Gouriki is also terribly naive, in a way. Having deemed herself the messenger of justice, she often takes some pretty drastic action in order to defeat the evil in question -- without taking the consequences into consideration. Destroying the headquarters building of an evil corporation having conveniently forgotten about the civilian company that worked in the same building, demolishing an illegal pharmaceutical company but accidentally releasing the dangerous chemicals into the surrounding farms, so on and so forth. she means well, she really does, it's just that she's not the most street-smart person when it comes to carrying out her plans. She means well, though, she really does -- can you blame her, in the end? Just give her a few pointers in the right direction, and she'll be alright.
And it's kind of like that pertaining to a lot of things in her life -- good intentions, not quite backed up by experience or knowledge. She's fiercely protective of her companions and allies, but she's a little too quick to forgive enemies in dangerous situation -- aware that she must dress nicely, but not quite conscious enough to realize how scandalous it looks when her clothes are all torn -- swinging her enormous weapons around in the name of justice, but conveniently forgetting that they might be swinging a bit too close to someone else's head. She's not stupid, not exactly -- her grades were alright back at St. Veronica's! -- but it's just that she hasn't learned enough in terms of worldly experience. All she knows is the sparkling, idealistic world seen from the shelter of her rich family's estate, and when she sees the harsh reality of the unjust outside world, all she can think is that maybe she can fix it to make it more like the perfect world she was in! She's got a good heart, but she's still mentally as young as she looks.
Oh, and one last thing. That whole dainty pampered lady thing? It's mostly just something that she's been taught to adhere to, because really? She's quite comfortable with living in not-so-posh condition, and her favorite food is pigs' feet, for chrissake. So please, don't think of her as a spoiled little brat, that might hurt her feelings, and she'll try her very best to change things to make it better for everyone. For justice!
ABILITIES:
Awww, what a cute little girl, you'll say. How small and adorable and dainty, so very fragile and protectable! -- yeah, how about no. Because Gouriki is a very special girl, and not at all fragile. Born with a rare condition by the name of Hyperion Constitution (found only in one in two million people!), her muscle fibers are packed in much more densely than the average person (let's say, about 600 muscles, more than 12 times as dense as a normal human), and that means she has that much more muscle than she looks like she'd have. To put it simply? Super strength. Though her build only about as amazing as your average young athlete, that petite frame hides an almost inhuman level of strength. How did you think she manages to haul around those enormous steel balls (that look like they were ripped off a demolition crane)?
Capable of hefting up enormous weights and flinging them around with ease, she's really not someone you want to mess with. Not to mention, having such a densely muscular body also works as fabulous defense. She was once thrown into a bed of gregion (why yes, it's a fictional steel alloy, one harder than galvanized steel) spikes that easily pierced through steel, but escaped without a scratch. "If we're talking about the solidity of my body, I have confidence I will not lose to anything," she claims, and rightly so. To the average guy, punching her would feel like punching a brick wall, so you might not wanna do that, yeah? (Of course, having so much muscle fiber to move around also means her appetite is enormous, and she easily horfs down almost gross amounts of calories. Daintily, of course.) The only possible downside to this ridiculous strength is that, proportionally speaking, her stamina isn't that much greater than the average well-toned girl, and forcing her to drag around enormous weights for a prolonged period of time will wear her right out. But until that time comes, haha. She's quite an adorable little force to deal with.
What are they bringing to Nuadoria?: Her Salt- and Miso-Chanko (huge iron balls on sticks), partly skewered through with iron spikes; her school uniform, partially torn up in the back; her hairpins, and her cellphone.