Kurobane Raiha

Kurobane Raiha (ku-ROH-ba-ne RAI-ha) is a Houndoom assassin currently residing in Noir Vale, living in Yuujou Shuuen's home along with Akuzan Kakeru.

Appearance
Raiha's Houndoom features consist of  two horns curving up from her head, and a flexible, spaded tail roughly 4' long. usually dresses in her 'work clothes', designed to allow her quick movement while sacrificing defenses (as painfully, humilatingly demonstrated by a certain Gallade). They consist of soft, padded black shoes that let her move quietly, black thigh-high stockings held up by knife straps, and a thick black tube top and skirt with a dark red cover-up, all held together by a thin black obi. She also wears finger-less gloves that extend past her elbows, and a red choker made from a broken knife strap given to her by Kakeru.

Under her clothes, Raiha also has a large, black dragon tattoo made of flame shapes up the side of her torso and another one of similar black flames that look like wings across her lower back. She's proud of them both.

Her knives, long since upgraded from the dagger she first used, lock into their sheaths when she isn't using them so they wouldn't slip out no matter how much she moves. A twist releases them for use. She nevers goes anywhere without at least one of them on her.

Personality
Gentle isn't anywhere in the Houndoom's natural disposition, and whenever possible, her first inclination is to fling a knife or a kick when she thinks someone should shut up. While she's generally about as lady-like as a man in a skirt she *is* aware that she's got a decent figure and a pretty face, so if she deems it fun, she teases and flirts until it isn't fun for her anymore. When is it no longer fun? When the person she's teasing isn't backing down. The Houndoom has a surprising limit.

It also goes without saying that unless you're thick-skinned enough to withstand insults, swears, and straight-forward jabs to your ego, you're not going to like this woman's company too much. For all her faults though, anything Raiha sets her mind to gets done. Determination mixed with a bit of insanity does wonders.

Her confidence borders on arrogance. She attributes everything she knows to hard work and a bit of luck, though the only luck she considers true was when she got her hands on her first dagger. Who wouldn't think they deserved to be self-assured then, really?

History
Raiha actually had a pleasant childhood. This lasted up until she was about 8, before her parents got into trouble with a few loan sharks that were unfortunately less than patient with them when they failed to settle a substantial debt. This was because, unknownst to Raiha, her parents were irresponsibly spending borrowed money to pretend they had a comfortable lifestyle. While the then-Houndour, and only child, grew in relative comfort and happiness, their debts grew in size, until it came to the point where collecting was impossible. This led the loan sharks to go after her family, killing her father—who'd gone down fighting—in front his wife and daughter while intending to sell the two females and recover the debt. Her mother retaliated by pretending to be submissive, only to take her husband's knives and slit every throat she could reach while screaming for her daughter to run.

Run Raiha did, covered in blood splatter. She barely made enough headway before one of the men caught up with her. By an insane stroke of luck he only used one dagger when he had two, and only hit Raiha with his fist while using the knife to intimidate her. She pretended to be down, like her mother, and when the man approached to retrieve her, she latched onto his arm with her teeth, twisted the knife free, and jammed it into his face. Several times.

Then she ran, clutching the dagger like it was her lifeline. The will to live was burned into her, while she learned through experience how to steal, threaten, and get her way by being more intimidating no matter how scared she was. This led her to her current job as a stand-alone assassin, where it became clear that the Houndoom had no qualms about taking lives and had the skill and aggression to back it up. She grew to enjoy it, pretending to be helpless only when it suited her.

Synposis
First meeting arc What began as a simple crossing of paths with Kakeru for the first time grew into a heated argument stemming from Kakeru finding her horns nice to the touch. Rather, Raiha was the only one who grew heated after Kakeru teased her for acting so much like a man in a skirt when all he wanted was to pet her horns more. He jumped to a height she couldn't reach before she could retaliate, and, in an attempt to get his guard down, offered him a chance to 'check and make sure she was a woman'. What she didn't expect was for Kakeru to strip her bare with thrown knives that cut her clothes, the speed at which Kakeru moved, nor his audacity when he groped her.

Making the most of the situation, the now murderous Houndoom goaded him further, moving in close--only to headbutt and knee the Gallade in the stomach, pulling him towards her as she fell back tossing him over her figure before running for the knives he'd disarmed from her. Kakeru caught her before she reached them, slamming her face-first into the ground. He used her tail to keep her in pain, something Raiha wouldn't have minded so much if his foot on her neck didn't render her oxygen dangerously low. She tried goading him again, but by then Kakeru's amusement had run out.

To Raiha's surprise, she woke up in an inn she didn't pay for after having passed out at the hands of the Gallade, wearing the gi he'd worn. She found out from the innkeeper that Kakeru had brought her there himself, and paid for her lodging. Then and there she swore she'd pay him back for the humiliation he put her through and the insult to injury he added when he took care of her even despite having every chance to kill her.

Noir Vale arc
Raiha met Shuuen after receiving a head injury from when she'd been practicing hitting a target on a tree and had a heavy fruit fall on her head. The Scizor offered to help her despite her constant swearing, and patted her head. Feeling apprehensive at first, Raiha rather liked feeling taken care of so gently  despite herself, and decided to milk the 'opportunity'. Shuuen was nothing but nice to her, offering her ice for her head as well as tea and fruit. Raiha wasn't too happy about the tea nor Shuuen's dislike for alcohol, but stayed anyway. He was so nice Raiha thought he was married. Shueen mentioned he wasn't, surprising Raiha even more.

After eating she went to wash her own plate and cup in an attempt to be polite, noting that the Scizor's gentle nature was reminding her painfully of her father. She mentioned it by way of retorting to Shuuen's protest at doing the dishes, only to start welling up at the rising memory she never really faced.

Seeking sanctuary in the drink, s he demanded alcohol again, was firmly refused any once more, and ran out of the house in an explosive tantrum. Shuuen managed to catch her, holding her still until Raiha, unable to run away anymore, simply started crying and wailing in a fit of depression she couldn't hold back. Raiha cried herself to sleep not long after, after which Shuuen took her back home to let her use his guest room.

When the Houndoom woke up she felt indebted to the Scizor, and tried to find something nice to do through some menial chore or something to get rid of the feeling. She only ended up being assisted by the Scizor further, getting a bath drawn for her and clothes to wear while hers were getting washed. She didn't realize the clothes she wore belonged to the same man who'd humiliated her, focusing instead on the Scizor--especially when Shuuen revealed he'd been holding a fever and grave injuries all this time. Raiha yelled at him for being stupid, and, after replacing his bandages for him (not without much yelling), ran out to fetch the local healer. She found and brought Takumi Jura to Shuuen. While waiting for the Zoroark to tend to the man, Raiha wandered into a heavily bandaged and wounded Kakeru's room by accident, not knowing Shuuen had taken measures to keep his home subconsciously confusing. This lead to her trying to see what state the Gallade was in, meaning to take Jura to him too on the grounds that if he was taken care of, he must be important to Shuuen. She ended up attacked and nearly strangled by the pain-crazed Gallade. She was saved by the fact that he was too wracked with pain to continue, and without recognizing him at all the way he was, kept him from bleeding from reopened wounds with her clothes and pressure.

Jura and Shuuen found her screaming for them while holding Kakeru tightly against herself, stained with his blood. Jura calmed the Gallade with a sleeping paralytic drink for everyone's (including Kakeru's) safety, and tended to his wounds by way of cauterization. The situation had Raiha shaken from the sight of so much blood on her person, something Shuuen mistook to be a fear of blood in general. Jura had Raiha help with the cauterization by having her use her flame to create the heat the Zoroark needed on her tools.

Raiha took it upon herself to clean up the mess, noting that between the two injured men and the exhausted older woman who'd spend so much time making sure those men would be fine, she was the only one in any condition to do so. She left the two to themselves and volunteered to keep watch over Kakeru.

The Gallade looked like he suffered from nightmares, which woke Raiha up after she tried taking a short nap. She reluctantly tried to stroke his head to calm him down, and it worked. Kakeru even smiled at her in a drugged stupor, lost in whatever hallucination he'd had. She slept in his room that night, reasoning to herself that she needed to be around him in case something happened instead of admitting she didn't want to sleep alone.

She woke up to see that he'd woken up before her, and fetched the man water when he croaked that he needed it. When he asked her if they'd met, feeling a sense of familiarity, Raiha realized with no small amount of shock who he really was and swore so much about what he did to her that Shuuen came running. The resulting friction between her and Kakeru was somewhat alleviated to the level where they wouldn't kill each other after Jura told Kakeru off for provoking Raiha and after Shuuen told Raiha Kakeru was his friend and therefore someone he'd like alive (after Raiha asked). Obon festival arc After living in relative peace with Shuuen and Kakeru, Raiha decided she didn't mind staying in a place where for once she didn't have to yell at the innkeeper if she were bothered about her lifestyle. She found it immensely annoying that Shuuen didn't allow alcohol, but priat.

Moves and Abilities

 * Ability: Flash Fire


 * Smog:


 * Flamethrower:
 * Fire Fang:
 * Odor Sleuth:

Relationships

 * Akuzan Kakeru
 * Yuujou Shuuen
 * Takumi Jura

Trivia

 * She has an extremely high tolerance to pain, and can withstand cuts to her skin without flinching.


 * She hates crying children because they remind her of when it was all she could do once the first few nights she was alone, after her parents were killed.


 * She's flexible enough to be a borderline contortionist. She forced those muscles to learn knowing it helped her to dodge better.


 * Buying her a drink gets her in a good enough mood, but she's a bad drunk. What is inhibition? Doesn't exist after the first two bottles. Trytouchingherthewrongwaythoughandyouloseafingerifyou'renotcareful.


 * She hates being alone because too much quiet time gives her nightmares. This means she'd rather pass out drunk, or start a fight to liven things up.


 * Disable one of her arms and you'll find that her tail knows how to handle a knife almost just as well.

Quotes
"Fuck off."

“The FUCK are you thinking walking around like those injuries don’t fucking matter?!?”