Profile
Summary
Akihiko "Aki" Nakazawa
Low-Ranking Yakuza
Akihiko is a low-ranking member of the Omi Alliance. Despite what one may think from a member of the yakuza, he's a poor fighter. The tasks he takes care of are mostly unskilled and consist of things like collecting debts or patrolling territory. Before joining the Omi, he was a host at Stardust, a part of his past he displays through his ability to come off as charismatic and easy to talk to, though deep down, he's self centered and stops caring about the other person as soon as the conversation ends.
After his officer entrusts him with the task of hunting down the missing legendary tattoo artist Utabori II, he has no choice but to work with his young apprentice,
Talula Momose.
Personality
introverted
optimistic
calculated
expressive
rational
Akihiko comes off as very charismatic, flirty and suave. These are characteristics picked up during his time as a host, and his ability to so thoroughly put on this persuasive persona has allowed him to get what he wants most of the time. In reality, Akihiko is deeply self-centred. He either doesn't care about whoever he's talking to or looks down on them, feeling as though the suffering he's gone through puts him in an entirely different world nobody else could even begin to fathom. Outside of getting what he wants through interacting with them, he's entirely unaware of the lives and realities other people are experiencing.
Akihiko also has little meaningful connection to others, choosing to keep the people in his life at arm's length at all times. The sudden death of his mother at a young age has made him extremely conscious of how fleeting a relationship can be, so, fearing how long they can last, he avoids making any. This is one of the reasons behind his selfish mindset. Another contributing factor is a lack of positive role models in his life. After his mother died, the only people he had to look up to were his father, who would squander the little money they had to feed his alcoholism, and his brother, who abandoned them as soon as the possibility of a greater future for himself arose. This instilled in his mind from a young age to look out for yourself first, even at the expense of other people.
Through having to work alongside Talula, someone who goes out of her way to obscure her true feelings in order to look strong, Akihiko is forced to go against his self-absorbed nature and put in the effort to understand someone else and why they are the way they are. psst read more about that in the relationships sectionn
- Cheap beer
- Onsens
- Slice of life manga
- Haruka Sawamura's music
- Very loud people
- Hospitals
- His dad
- Any tea that isn't green
- Surprisingly skilled at cooking as a result of having to fend for himself
- Eyesight is poor, is almost always wearing contacts
Backstory
- Write up a summary here.
- You can also use this area for content warnings.
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i.
Akihiko was born on May 12th, 1996, to his mother, Chihiro Nakazawa and father, Zentaro Nakazawa. Zentaro was a successful businessman selling insurance, so Akihiko and his elder brother of six years, Ryonosuke, enjoyed a well-off upbringing for a time. Because Akihiko's paternal grandmother, Yeo Hyun-mi, was Korean, he grew up speaking it with her a bit until she died in 2003. While cracks started to show when Zentaro's investments started dropping and he started staying out late to drink with his colleagues, he still had a loving wife and children.
This all changed, however, with the sudden death of Chihiro from a heart attack when Akihiko was 12. Zentaro spiralled into alcoholism, eventually getting fired and needed to sell their house to get by. The three of them were forced to live in Hyun-mi's house, which was filthy due to Zentaro neglecting to keep it clean. Aspiring actor Ryonosuke, resenting Akihiko since childhood and growing sick of their neglectful, drunkard father, didn't hesitate to leave his family behind after finding a good agency and a woman who made him completely turn his back on his past. This left Akihiko entirely alone with his father.
ii.
Akihiko graduated high school at 18 and spent a year doing odd jobs and gambling to make ends meet. At 19, he was able to land an interview at Stardust in 2016 while it was, unbeknownst to him, under the control of the Jingweon mafia. This was thanks to his knowledge of Korean, which he'd put more effort into learning during high school. While he was far from fluent, needing to answer Korean questions in Japanese sometimes, it was enough to be hired. He was initially carried only by his good looks but learned other aspects of the job, like conversational skills with time. Despite being frequently requested by clients, the Jingweon took the majority of the money for themselves, leaving him living paycheck to paycheck. After hearing about the Jingweon's plans for takeover and what they did to other hosts, he was intimidated into staying.
This all changed when Akihiko was introduced to a man named Kazuma Kiryu. Prior to this, Akihiko thought that the Dragon of Dojima was created by the government to cover up whatever methods they use to take down yakuza operations, fear monger, and manipulate the economy. He was shocked to see the living legend walk into the club one night and so easily take his boss and head of the Japanese branch of the Jingweon, Joongi Han, down to defend Yuta. Kiryu's selflessness restored his faith in humanity a bit, but more than that, he admired his ability to defend himself and assumed that someone like him would have a lot of money. Thus, he resolved to leave Stardust to join the yakuza in order to be similarly strong and wealthy. Conveniently, shortly after this, Joongi is shot, dissolving the Japanese branch of the Jingweon mafia and allowing Akihiko to leave Stardust free of consequences.
iii.
and then he joined the matsugane family somehow yay
IV.
ok i'll write something proper for this soon but basically he goes to get irezumi from utabori cause it's hard and he manages to book an appointment w the guy who did kiryu's! score! so he pulls up to the place just to be greeted by his apprentice apparently utabori isn't around these days. okay bummer but it's fine so long as he can get that SICK PHOENIX TAT!! but this apprentice who's named talula is like "uh no see irezumi is based on your character not aesthetics like that so i need to understand you first" and akihiko is like "umm how about i'm paying you so you do what i want?" and talula who already seemed on edge is like "okay get the fuck out" and she kicks him out and he's like "what a bitch!" and a few days later an officer in his family calls him into his office and is like "we're entrusting you to investigate a famous horishi named utabori ii it's a big job and stuff you'll get mad promoted and make tons of cash if you don't mess this up" so he's like "okayyy i like money ok guess i'll go back to where that bitch apprentice was at and ask her some questions" so he does and she's like "wait you're investigating utabori?? he's been missing let me investigate with you" and he's like "umm no? you're stupid and a civillian" and she's like "ok then i won't tell you about utabori then what" and he's like "ok FINE" so the two work together to find him yay
V. (unimplemented rambles)
i know this is vague and the details here are subject to change (really all of this is subject to change but especially this stuff) but basically the idea is that utabori was forced to participate in the assassination of some yakuza boss wayy back in the day to help some evil corrupt guy rise to power and he kind of vowed to keep in quiet and in exchange he'd be left alone but now this evil corrupt guy is doing something really bad and now utabori is like "ok i've really got to do something to stop this i can't let this slide" but also didn't want to involve talula so he left without telling her cause she'd really follow him to the ends of the earth and want to help him really badly so he had to be sneaky...
also i'd like to think utabori had apprentices prior to talula but something happened to them to make him not have any more because it's really strange for a horishi as great and also as old as him not to have any?? maybe relating back to the assassination thing maybe he had to participate to save his apprentice's skin or something but then they actually still killed his apprentice. that'd be messed up. and then he was like "i'll never take in another apprentice again...." but he saw himself in talula and she was sopping wet and pathetic and her talent would be wasted if she got deported and stuff so he was like "ok maybe i'll try this apprentice thing again"
i haven't figured out if akihiko's family is AGAINST utabori, wanting him dead so he can't speak on the assassination or WITH him, because they'd benefit from the assassination being leaked and this evil guy being knocked out of power but even if they do they don't have a personal investment in him. so i think at some point in the story akihiko would get his hands on evidence of the assassination and his boss would say "okay the evidence is good enough if you have that we don't need utabori himself so you can stop working with that weird girl and bounce" and even though they'd be working together for like a month atp and they were actually pretty tight and he'd just totally abandon talula for a bit but he'd be like "no this isn't right..." and then choose to like go against his family to help her because the power of friendship or whatever and he doesn't know this but this is just before the omi disbands so he doesn't even face any real consequences LMAO. but he makes the decision under the impression he's totally screwing himself over for her and it shows growth because akihiko kind of starts the story off as a selfish asshole but now here he is totally screwing himself over for this girl he met a month ago
Design notes
- 6'1 and liike 150-160lbs maybe. he's a skinny pretty boy ex host so he's lean and inverted triangle with a small waist and long legs. his arms should always be smaller than talula's
- i guess he's somewhere between a soy sauce face and sauce face. i try to draw his face with sharp angles? high cheekbones, high nose bridge and a defined nose bridge. positive canthal tilt too. this guy is every looksmaxxer's dream. i also like to draw him with a line in his inner eye corner like phoenix wright ace attorney
- do not forget to give him volume at the root of his bangs he has anime girl air vents okay
- his ears are pierced. i like to draw him w studs or a little hoop
Relationships
Talula is the apprentice of Utabori II who refused to tattoo Akihiko for his superficial perception of irezumi. Now, the two are practically siblings, with Talula assuming the role of an annoying younger sister who loves to piss off, bewilder, or get any kind of reaction from her older brother.
At first, Talula viewed Akihiko as a shallow new-gen yakuza, and he viewed her as a pretentious apprentice. As the daughter of a man whose whole career revolves around being able to deeply understand his clients, Talula quickly sees through Akihiko's playboy persona. In fact, she has the unique ability to get on his nerves, something she does a lot early in their relationship. She uses this as a coping mechanism for her stress surrounding Utabori's disappearance and is under the belief it makes her appear less bothered and thus more strong. In turn, Akihiko sees Talula as a pretentious little girl way out of her depth and doesn't treat her as an equal, especially because outside of irezumi, she comes off as a very casual person. Taking her at face value and not trying to understand her behaviour any deeper, he starts to think everything is a joke to her and that he's the only one who actually cares about their situation.
A specific point of contention between them is their age. Talula constantly makes fun of Akihiko for being "old," insisting he buys her Staminans with his "grown-up money." While these are entirely jokes on her side, not believing 25 is old and just trying to mess with him, Akihiko truly thinks she's an immature brat in way over her head and that he'd be far better off on his own. Despite their relationship having a lot of issues, though, they did manage to settle on some level of amicability after investigating Utabori's disappearance together for so long. Talula had started to genuinely care for Akihiko and value him as a friend. While Akihiko had started to care for Talula, too, he hadn't noticed it.
These underlying issues were bound to come to a head eventually, though, as during a particularly high-stakes situation, emotions were running high. Talula was more stressed than she had ever been and was acting especially antagonistic to the equally stressed Akihiko. Growing sick of her, Akihiko snaps and shouts at her. His reaction startles her, and she becomes defensive, insisting he was getting worked up over nothing, which only sets him off further on a long, trauma-dumping rant about the death of his mother, his alcoholic father, and everything else awful about his life. While initially feeling sympathetic, Talula quickly loses her pity when he tells her that she couldn't possibly understand what he's gone through since she doesn't know struggle, specifically that she doesn't know what it's like to lose her mother and that he's starting to think she doesn't care much about finding Utabori. Becoming even more upset than Akihiko was, she begins to chastise his selfish behaviour, pointing out that people who "don't know struggle" and have normal relationships with their mothers aren't adopted and raised by horishi. Akihiko, bewildered to timidness by her rage and scathing critique of his character, insists he couldn't have known, but Talula insists he would've picked up on the signs if he'd been willing to look outside himself for one second before storming off.
While at first Akihiko was reluctant to accept what Talula had said, after a couple of hours or so, he figured it wasn't a good idea for them to be apart for so long, even if he didn't feel like seeing her again so soon. Also, to his surprise, he felt a sense of loss about the possibility of their friendship ending. Looking for her at the only place he'd imagined she'd be, he barged into Divine Dragon, Utabori's tattoo parlor, ready to tell her he'd forget about the whole argument if she would and that they should just go back to how they were before, but instead walked in on her crying. Feeling humiliated at being caught at such a vulnerable time, she begged him not to look at her before imploring him to, insisting he must get a kick out of seeing her in such a sorry state. In reality, seeing her with her knees to her chest on the ground acting so emotionally made him think of her as a child. Not a child, as in someone who was a clueless and useless brat, rather, a child, as in someone who was going through a scary situation she wasn't familiar with and really needed someone she could rely on. She also reminded him of himself when he was younger and, in a way, lost his father, too. For the first time in a while, he truly empathized with someone and, more than that, wanted to help them when he didn't have anyone there to help him. So he, being the bigger person for once, approached her first and sat next to her despite her protests. After a minute of silence, Talula admitted that she had realized in her time alone the way her behaviour impacted others. She worked hard to find Utabori but almost seemed to hide that she was putting effort in by acting so casually. She didn't want to look like she cared too much, which, in hindsight, was a bizarre thing to want. Of course Akihiko thought she didn't care, and it was unfair for her to subject him to her insufferable behaviour just because she wanted to look cool. In turn, Akihiko admitted that she was right in criticizing his self-centred nature and that he had no idea what she was dealing with on her own. but like it's not as clean as i'm making sound at all. they're mumbling and fumbling their words and starting sentences over a bunch. lots of "like"s and "y'know"s and "or something"s and "and stuff"s and weird pauses. they probably go for a hug that lasts a little too long and then stare at each other with weird faces and akihiko asks "are you hungry" and talula is like "yeah" and he's like "let's go to akaushimaru" and she's like "ok" and they just get up like they didn't just have a big heart to heart on the floor of a dingy tattoo parlor and go eat some beef bowls
Immediately after the fight, their interactions are awkward. Talula is hesitant and calculated in how she treats Akihiko because she doesn't want to fall into old patterns to the point conversations are stilted and awkward. Akihiko, who doesn't know how to act when he cares about someone, does nice things for her, like buying her drinks from Poppo, but refuses to acknowledge he's doing her a favour and will act weirdly if she tries thanking him or bringing it up. As they get more comfortable with each other, however, their dynamic becomes something that looks very similar to what it was before but fundamentally differs in that both parties understand why the other acts the way they do. Now, Talula doesn't mess with Akihiko because she dislikes him, doesn't take anything seriously, or because she is trying to come off as tough. She likes him, and that's her way of having fun with him. Akihiko acts annoyed because, sometimes, she does piss him off, and she's quick to apologize, but he's mostly just playing along because he finds their banter fun, even messing with her back from time to time. Akihiko learns to look after Talula as the older brother he never had for Talula, and Talula learns to be open with her emotions, and, in turn, accept others'.
