Born and raised in one of the shadiest parts of Chun Nan, street violence wasn’t uncommon in Ryoga’s childhood. While he tried to always steer clear of it or solve matters in a more pacific way, his brother Arashi was the complete opposite: rude and hot headed, he was the first to jump into a fight to help someone, even with how little a child could do to actually help in such a situation. All the attempts to hold Arashi back were for nothing, he always found a way to sneak out and bring justice in his own way.

When it was clear that nothing would hold back his twin, Ryoga decided to try and at least help him at the best of his abilities, keeping an eye on him, taking care of his injuries and occasionally dealing a blow or two in a fight. Even with his reluctance to get involved in that kind of mess, their improvised teamwork was working pretty well, despite the reputation it was starting to earn them- not like Arashi cared about being called a delinquent or a criminal.

Unfortunately, street justice doesn’t tend to end well, and Ryoga learned this the hard way. An unexpected ambush of a gang dead set on revenge led to a horribly one-sided fight; the only reason Ryoga even survived was his brother getting in the way to protect him from the worst of it, until the gang was satisfied with their work and left them alone to die. Skitter had been fast to call an ambulance, but there was little that could be done to save Arashi. When Ryoga woke up in the hospital, his brother had already passed away.

Filled with grief, he was completely at loss and unresponsive at first, until he physically recovered and was dismissed from the hospital. Going home and finding himself alone broke something inside of him.

Taking up the vigilante role of his dead brother, Ryoga decided to continue their work. In his eyes, it wasn’t revenge, it was justice.

Distancing himself from his only friend left, Ryoga started going out more and more often with his brother’s old equipment, his methods of dealing with the criminals slowly turning more and more brutal.

His recklessness was getting worse with each fight, and it was soon clear that he just stopped caring about himself, often even losing sleep or forgetting meals altogether. It didn’t take much longer for that to land him in trouble.

He had little to no recollection of the fight, only remembering being outnumbered and seeing red at the mention of his dead brother, to then find himself standing in the middle of the alley, surrounded by knocked out –possibly dead- gang members with nothing more than a few bruises and scratches and some slightly more worrisome, but thankfully not life threatening, injuries. For a moment, he simply stood there, blood soaked bat limp in his hand, just trying to figure what the hell just happened. When he heard a sigh, he immediately turned, bat in hand, to find himself face to face with a ghost. His brother’s ghost.

Needless to say, that was quite the night.

Partly panicking, partly to convince himself that he was –or wasn’t- hallucinating, Ryoga did the only thing his frazzled and incoherent mind could come up with at the time; he called Skitter, having the mind to profusely apologize for his terrible behavior before asking for help. Against all common sense, Skitter did listen to him, even accepting his apology before fussing over him and ultimately going to pick him up before he could find even more trouble.

Had it not been for his current situation, Skitter’s face upon seeing Arashi’s ghost would’ve been worth a pic and quite a few laughs. At least Ryoga now knew he wasn’t going crazy- not entirely at least.

A ride home and a few confused explanations and introductions later, they were all sitting –or floating, in Arashi’s case- in Skitter’s living room/improvised workshop, physically, mentally and emotionally drained. It didn’t take much for the two of the group that needed it to decide ‘screw everything’ and go to sleep to deal with the whole situation in the morning.

In the end, Skitter managed to convince Ryoga to stay, on the condition that Ryoga would help him with his new work at the workshop and whatever else might be necessary, both to repay his kindness and to make up for pushing him away for so long.

Now, he still continues with his vigilantism, although he has managed to somewhat calm down and be more rational, letting the others help whenever is needed and thinking before recklessly rushing in. He’s the power member of the team, not only in terms of strength but in intelligence too, a merciless strategist and a quick thinker with enough intimidation tactics to back him up.