Takara Akira - Exquisite Soldier Wild Orchid Physical Description: - 17 years old - Medium-length wavy blonde hair - Brown eyes - 5'9" (175cm) tall - Manner of dress: - School uniform: Black jacket with white shirt and black trousers - Everyday clothes: Somewhat androgynous fashions. - Magical Boy uniform: Lavender bodysuit with a white sash across the chest; white knee-length boots and elbow-length gloves; silver chain with a lavender gem set in it; green plexiglas eyemask Personality and History: Takara Akira has led a rather unsettled life the past few years. He has been moved around all over Japan by his divorced father, and now they were settling in HyperTokyo for a while, in arcology tower three. He was hoping that they'd be able to stay at least long enough to complete his senior year at Mizuhara high school, near where they had moved in and set up his father's flower shop. Upon transfer, Akira found himself the center of attention of most of the girls on campus. While flattered that he was popular (most likely due to his good looks and senior status), he was also uncomfortable with it, especially when the attention came from one of the myanaran girls, named Ferris. Not only did he have his schoolwork to keep him busy, but Akira also worked part-time for his father. Within the first week of school, he received his first visitors from school in the form of Ferris and three of her friends. Two of whom he knew from class...Mika and Natsumi, while the third friend, Akiko, looked to be college-age rather than a high school student. Mika, for her part, was carrying around the penguin-shaped robopet like she always seemed to do. As the three high school- ers pestered him on the job, Akiko just gave him funny, but knowing looks. All the attention from the girls got to be too much and Akira had to tell them the truth. He just wasn't interested in them aside from being friends because he was gay. While Akiko had no reaction to this bit of info, Mika was disappointed while Natsumi was quite confused (until Akiko slowly explained things to her). Ferris, on the other hand, was quite livid. Being a myana- ran, she couldn't fathom why some humans would get themselves involved in homosexual relationships. Realizing that her atten- tions were wasted on Akira, she went into a rage and tried to attack him. Akira was lucky that the other three girls were on hand to hold the catgirl back from harming him. As they finally got Ferris at least relatively calm, an exotic plant that Akira's father had brought in the other night started growing to huge proportions. Revealing itself to be a youma, it proceeded to attack the group. While Akira ducked behind the counter, the four girls transformed into the Exquisite Soldiers and began to counterattack the monsterous plant. Akira, peeking out above the counter, couldn't believe that those girls were actually the Exquisite Soldiers that he kept hearing about on the news the past few months. He also saw that the battle was not going good for them and decided to help in his own way. Seeing a jug of weedkiller on a still-intact shelf. he grabbed it, nearly ripped off the cap, and splashed the contents on the youma. Screaming in agony and outrage at the impudent mortal attacking it, the youma shot a branch out at Akira and knocked him into a storeroom. Coming to a minute later, Akira saw Mika's robopet approach- ing him. He was surprised that the mechanical pet started to speak to him like a normal person would, introducing herself as Penko. As Akira stared at Penko, wondering if he got landed on his head really hard, Penko went on to explain that she was a liason with the Magical Girl Corps and that he was picked on the spot to be a test case for the affirmative action program that the MGC. Recently, the MGC was sued by the Internation Associa- tion for the Advancement of Pretty Boys (IAAPB) to allow males on the magical girl teams. Since Akira showed some bravery in attacking the youma, he was selected instantly by the MGC computer systems to serve with the Exquisite Soldiers. Penko then produced a silver chain with a lavender gem set into it and gave it to him as well as the magical phrase to activate his transformation. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, he did so and stepped out of the storeroom, announcing himself to be Exquiste Soldier Wild Orchid. While the girls looked on in shock (after all, this was a *guy* that was now on their team), Akira launched the first attack that came to mind...the Orchid Pollen Cloud. Unfortunate- ly, while the cloud would have been able to slow down most opponents, it only helped the plant youma. Akira watched in horror as his own attack caused the youma to start blooming, ready to spread more of itself around. Realizing that the flowers were the youma's way of reproduc- ing, Akira set off his second attack, the Leaf Blade Castration. The youma laughed at first, since it didn't have any genitalia to be cut off, until it found out too late that streams of sharp leaf blades zoomed at the blooming flowers instead. The youma was unable to defend itself as the leaves thoroughly trashed the flowers, leaving it in agony and unable to reproduce. Seeing an opening, Mika was able to generate her Magic Soul Blade and keep it within eight meters this time. She then sliced horizontally at the plant's base, cutting the branches off from the roots. Within moments, the monster became mulch. It was at that moment that Akira's father came back from errands, having heard of the fight at his flower shop. Rushing in, he saw no sign of his son, but did see the remains of the monster plant, as well as the five superheroes that defeated it (one looking vaguely familiar). Before he could reward them for saving his flower shop and ask if they had seen his son, the Exquisite Soldiers had hastily left in order to avoid an awkward situation. Akira slowly adjusted to being an Exquisite Solider over time, as well as the girls adjusting to him for the most part. While Mika, Akiko, and Natsumi warmed up to him (especially Natsumi), Ferris still gave him problems from time to time. This has varied from nagging and harrassment over various matters, to misguided attempts to seduce him and turn him to what she refers to as "the right way of doing things". Naturally, this does lead to some additional friction in the team... Special Abilities: While he wears a different style of uniform than those of the girls, Akira still gets the same benefits that they get, such as the ID Protection field, the HUD linkup with MGC mainframes, and other such pluses. His attacks include the Orchid Pollen Cloud, designed to slow down enemies by sending them into severe sneezing fits, and the Leaf Blade Castration, which attacks the genitalia and other sensitive areas of an enemy's anatomy. Unique to him is the disguise power. Due to his androgynous looks, he could use this power to pass himself off as a member of either sex in whatever role he sees fit. Unlike the Magical Girl/Boy powers, this one could be used in his civilian identity as well as being an Exquisite Soldier.