Taro

The cab driver flips the meter on and jerks his Ford Americar into the flow of traffic. "Taro? Isn't that some sorta Jap potato? Scan, chummer, they got a potato place right by the Stuffer Shack...oh, a Trog named Taro. Yeah, let me see here." The cabbie manually adds two hundred nuyen to the meter and looks back at you, displaying a distressing comfort with not watching the road. After you nod acceptance, he continues. "Oh, yeah, I think I know him. He's kinda the quiet brutal type. He put a buddy of mine in the hospital for no reason at all...well not a good enough reason to put him in the hospital. Sure, he calls himself a monk and all, but between you and me, the only difference between him and some Sprawl ganger is that the ganger may smell worse, but at least I can understand the ganger's motives. If you really want to find this guy, then you'll probably want this place." The cab slows quickly to a halt. Amidst the ash covered misery of the Puyallup neighborhood sits a small red and gold Buddha temple, like a colorful trinket dropped into the cold ashes of a dead campfire. "Good luck, chummer."

Physical Description

Mannerisms, Quirks, Etc.

• It's all in the name: Taro means "big boy" in Japanese; he was hefty even at birth. Sasaki is a common last name in Hokkaido.
• Monk-style: Even though he's no longer an official monk, Taro still follows some practices and has grown accustomed to shaving his head.
• Rookie 'Runner: Although he may be suited to it, Taro has no experience as a 'runner. At least he's streetwise and a capable martial artist.
• Spinning Back-Fist: Taro has studied several styles of martial arts, including Kung-Fu, Jujitsu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Street Fighting.
• Look out, Jackie Chan!: Taro is a skilled acrobat, and possesses a wide variety of other athletic skills, all of which he enjoys using.
• Soft-spot: Taro takes care to prevent harm to children; he would never wish a difficult childhood like his on anyone.
• Lotus-position: Taro is an avid and capable student of meditation. He can calm himself or clear his mind with a number of exercises.
• Man of Few Words: Taro usually chooses his words carefully, mostly because his command of the various languages he knows is no more than average. Also, he learned long ago that one can accomplish much more by listening and acting. The exceptions to this rule are haiku and Ainu folklore, both of which he enjoys most passionately. Taro's speech in English or Ainu is characterized by a mild Japanese accent.
  

Current Stats

Character Progression

• Run 11: +5 karma [39/32]
• Warstory: +1 [40/33]
• Run 12: +9 karma [49/42]
• Warstory: +2 [51/44]
• Meditation, 4 to 5, -5 karma [46/44]
• AK: Puyallup, 0 to 2, -3 karma [43/44]
• Negotiation, 0 to 2, -4 karma [39/44]
• Throwing, 2 to 3, -4.5 karma [34.5/44]
• Run 13: +5, [39.5/49]
• Grade 1, -9 karma [30.5/49]
• Centering 0 to 3, -8.5 karma [22/49]
• Heavy Weapons 0 to 3, -8.5 karma [13.5/49]
• Pistol 0 to 3, -8.5 karma [5/49]
• Warstory +1 [6/50]
• Run 14, +6 [12/56]
• Staff 3 to 4, -6 [6/56]
• Throwing 3 to 4 [0/56]

Contacts

Lifestyle

• Middle paid through JUL2058

Weapons and Equipment ( ____ k¥ left)

Weapons Telescoping Staff	Explosives
Clothing & Armor Secure Long Coat (4/2) Ordinary Clothing	Electronics Handset Unit Cell Phone
Tools	Surveillance and Security
Surveillance Measures & Countermeasures Fake ID 2 "Ken Smith"	Security Devices
Survival Gear	Skillsofts and Chips
Miscellaneous Gear Stainless Steel Chopsticks w/case Stainless Steel Rice Bowl Straight Razor Journal Notebook (in Japanese) w/pen Book of Collected Haiku (in Japanese)	Biotech/Medical
Magical Equipment	Vehicles

Starting Stats

Background

From a very young age, Taro Sasaki was "a man without a country." Born into a native Ainu tribe on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan, Taro experienced prejudice even as a young child, since he was the illegitimate offspring of his Ainu mother and her Japanese lover. It was perhaps better that Taro's father abandoned them early, since his continued presence would have invited more ridicule. As if these circumstances were not bad enough, Taro began to goblinize around the age of ten. The more his troll features developed, the more he had to suffer the abuse of both children and adults of the tribe. Even though the tribe was mildly familiar with goblinization and the various metahuman variants, they viewed Taro's sudden changes as bad omens, consistent with his status as a bastard child. Things were further aggravated by the fact that Taro's features strongly resembled the feared oni demons of traditional Japanese folklore. Consequently, Taro's mother chose to entrust her son's care to the benevolence of a wandering Zen monk who happened upon their tribal village.

Master Daizui, as Taro learned to call him, was a dwarf over 130 years in age who happily took the troubled child under his wing. Realizing early on that Taro held great potential, Daizui mentored him carefully. Since Daizui's own long life proved the importance of harmonizing a strong mind with a strong body, Taro's "education" included the tenets of Zen and the traditional art of haiku (for which Taro has a considerable passion), as well as physical conditioning and martial arts. Under old Daizui's watchful tutelage, Taro's latent magical abilities Awakened, granting him access to physical abilities far beyond those of even the average troll.

After four more years of wandering with Taro, Master Daizui's superb health began to succumb to the effects of old age. As a result, he chose to end the last period of wandering in his life at a Zen monastery in the city of Kyoto, on Honshu, Japan's main island. Retiring to teaching at the monastery, Daizui found a place for Taro and encouraged the young troll to experience both the monastery and the city around him. Daizui slowly faded over the next two years, time enough for Taro to prepare for his beloved Master's passing. Soon after Daizui quietly subsided, Taro reached the headstrong age of seventeen. Although he maintained his position with the other monks at the monastery, he began to realize that Daizui's outlook on life, and consequently his own, did not exactly see eye-to-eye with the rest of the monks.

Soon after the death of his Master, Taro was assigned to attend to a visiting pilgrim from Seattle named Seiji Nakamura. Taro enjoyed his time with the talkative electronics technician, who invited the troll to visit his own Buddhist temple back in Seattle. Despite his proper conduct with guests and other monks and the timely fulfillment of his duties, the tension caused by slight differences in ideology pushed Taro to the fringes of monastery life. As a result, Taro began his own wanderings, learning more and more about life outside the monastery during his week-long excursions.

During one of these trips, Taro encountered Lari Valdez, a young freelance reporter from Seattle. He earned a good week's pay serving as her bodyguard and helping guide her through the streets of Kyoto as she uncovered some of Renraku's dirty little secrets about one of their local factories. The completely new life experience was much more significant to Taro than the money, although he did safely keep his earnings back at the monastery. Lari wrote a letter of recommendation of his behalf, so that he might use it to obtain other jobs, and she told him to look her up should he ever come to Seattle, since someone always needed a bodyguard.

As a result of that positive experience, Taro tried his hand at a number of other odd jobs over the next couple of years, gaining a variety of life experiences and socking away enough money to embark on a life of his own. Taro also obtained his tattoos around this time. Although the elder monks vehemently disapproved, Taro wanted to get inked with traditional patterns that would reflect his Ainu heritage. Struggling to hold onto his new life as a monk, he bolstered his confidence by laying claim to part of his former life through his tattoos.

The tension between Taro and the conservative elder monks boiled over after a particular unfortunate incident. The monastery, which was known to house several metahumans, was attacked by a mob of human supremacists, enraged by a dangerous mix of drugs, alcohol, and blind hatred. Many of the monks were pacifists without even defensive training, so several were killed and many others were injured. Although Taro was not the only monk capable of defending his fellows, his Physical Adept powers, troll physical prowess, and ample training did make him the most effective. While many of the other defending monks merely subdued their opponents, Taro's anger got the better of him, and he stopped pulling punches. When the mob was finally repulsed, several buildings of the monastery lay burning. More horrifying to the other monks, though, were the five dead bodies lying near Taro. Taro stood amidst the carnage dumb-founded as blood dripped from his fists. Realizing that his life at the monastery was over, he ran into one of the burning buildings to retrieve his meager possessions. As Taro ran away from the monastery, the other monks recited prayers for their former comrade, knowing that the road ahead of him would be difficult, to say the least. As flames rose high into the cool Kyoto night, Taro Sasaki, again a man without a home or family, took refuge under a bridge and quietly wept.

Fearing persecution and worse for his actions, Taro took advantage of his streetwise teenage years and began to secure passage to Seattle, the only place he could think of going. After a little legwork, he managed to secure a forged credstick (Rating 2), a telescoping staff, and a secure long-coat. These items, along with his chopsticks, rice bowl, journal with recommendation letter tucked neatly inside, book of haiku, and the clothes on his back, constituted all of his worldly possessions. Nearly broke and still needing to travel across the Pacific, Taro scrounged up the perfect job opportunity. He answered an ad for "Ship Security Needed" and discovered that he could obtain a free ride to Seattle, as well as two meals a day, by serving as one of the peacekeepers amongst the "steerage", the various downtrodden or lowlife folks who booked relatively cheap and unmonitored passage and occupied every available hold not filled with cargo. By offering his letter of recommendation and a demonstration of his prowess, Taro landed the job. He served alongside three Cascade Ork brothers who needed a cheap way to get back home to Salish-Shidhe Council lands. The Orks had done some security work before, providing support for smugglers from their tribe. Their experience, coupled with Taro's abilities, provided for one the most peaceful voyages the ship's crew ever had. As the ship docks in Seattle, Taro looks forward to finding a new world, filled with new people, places, and experiences.

Taro emerged from that night at the monastery a new man; if politeness failed to obtain the necessary result, then he'd temper it with a healthy dose of intimidation. Killing someone stripped away the pacifist tendencies in Taro. Although he still preferred not to kill, he would do so without hesitation if his life were threatened. While he still dislikes starting a fight, he makes it a point to finish them. Even-tempered, generally inoffensive, and streetwise, Taro takes advantage of people's tendency to assume he represents nothing more than your average troll bruiser.