Zinkaze Hitama

History

• Biography

  Kaze was born to Jeffery and Marina Hitama in Corona, Minketa, one of the suburbs of the large city of Kazenama, the capital of Minketa (min-kay-tuh). His childhood was a pretty good one. He had a few close friends and did well in school. So well in fact that he skipped a couple grades. However, when he first went to college at the University of Kazenama, he was very much a fish out of water, only being in his mid-teens. Luckily for him though, one of his classmates saw that he was uncomfortable in the new environment and offered to help him out. That classmate's name was Everett "Rett" Johnson and the two of them have been best friends ever since. With time, though, he was able to settle in and become one of his class year's top students. Instead of leaving after 4 years, he applied for a doctoral program for applied physics and mathematics, to which he got accepted. At 20 years old, during his first year in the program, he meets Mina Kinetari, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, who was a couple years older than he was at 22 and was also part of the program. After talking on several occasions and even working together a little bit on a project or two, Kaze plucks up the necessary courage and asks her out on a date. After giggling for a little bit, she accepts. This first date is the beginning of a wonderful relationship. The two hit it off right away, each thinking the other was really sweet. The pair go out a few more times after that before Mina brings Kaze to meet her father, Arthur Kinetari. He is the President, CEO, and owner of Kinetari Industries of Kazenama (KIK for short; affectionately pronounced "kick"). Kaze was a little intimidated, but managed to navigate the meeting without incident. In fact, Arthur liked him too, and told Mina that she had made a good choice.
  
  When Kaze is 22, upon successful completion of the doctorate program, Mina goes to work in the upper echelons of KIK and Kaze fills an empty spot there in the R&D department. KIK is a company that manufactures bladed weaponry, and has a government contract to make combat knives for the Minketan military. Kaze was in charge of testing a lot of the products before they went into final production. He was excellent in this position, as he is a superb swordsman. After 2 years at KIK, Kaze was good enough at his job that he was named head of R&D. Although, he was helped by the magic hand of his girlfriend, who by then was running the company, as a year into Kaze's stint at KIK, Arthur had died of a heart attack and had left the business to her in his will. There were a couple of grumbles in the department about the "newbie" getting the job as well as some grumblings about nepotism, but those were fortunately few and far between. The guys who worked for him liked him a lot.
  
  When Kaze is 25, on a Friday morning in mid-May (about 2 months before his 26th birthday), he is awakened early in the morning by a call from Mina, saying that the secret project that she was working on and had only told him about had been completed. She tells him to get to the office so that he can test it out. An hour later, he's pulling into his parking space in KIK's underground garage. He made his way to his lab to find Mina there waiting for him. They embrace before Kaze notices something cloth-wrapped on the main table in his lab. He unwraps the object and he sees that it's a 7" combat knife. Mina explains that the steel of the blade was tempered to make it resistant to dulling, as well as to give it added durability and sharpness. Kaze tests it out on some test dummies in the corner of his lab, and then asks if there's anything else it could do. Mina points out a button just below the top of the hilt. Kaze pushes it and the blade shoots out of the handle and into the chest of one of the dummies. Kaze is, understandably, excited and congratulated his girlfriend on how she outdid herself on this one and that the military would pay a lot of coin for it. Mina then told him that it was a custom piece and that it was an early birthday present for him. He thanks her, and then segues into popping the question. She says yes. They embrace.
  
  A few hours later, they're in Mina's office on one of the top floors of the office building, discussing something that Kaze had heard on the news that morning: the night before, a band of thieves from a domestic terrorist organization known as Sigma, headed by one Katsuki Sinkane, broke into Fort Carter, the military's most secure stronghold, and made off with hundreds of highly classified documents on weapons contracts. Kaze is understandably concerned, as they have a contract with the military, but Mina tells him not to worry, but she'll change the vault passcode nonetheless (there's a high-security vault at KIK which holds their more classified documents, contracts, and designs). After this, Kaze makes to leave, but lets Mina know that his mother had invited them to dinner the next night to celebrate. She says she'd love to. Kaze then says he's going to head downstairs to further examine his new knife and leaves the office. He walks to the elevator and pushes the button, but nothing happens. Kaze pushes the button again and places his ear to the door. Nothing. He's about to call down to maintenance before he hears a rustling sound from Mina's secretary's desk behind him. He dives to the left as the first shots ring out. Turns out the secretary works for Sinkane. Kaze tries to make his way to the desk and Mina comes up behind her secretary and runs his shoulder through with a katana. Kaze tries to get information out of the secretary but before he can really spill any of the goods, the phone rings, and the man himself is on the other end. Kaze tries to get information out of him too, but also fails there. As Sinkane rings off, he offers Kaze congratulations on his engagement. Obviously terrified, Kaze called Rett, who was now a Minketa Investigative Bureau Special Agent. Kaze tells his best friend what had just happened and Rett reassures him but promises to have guys keep tabs on his, Mina's, and his parents' place. Kaze thanks him and rings off.
  
  The next night, Kaze and Mina are at his parents' house celebrating his and Mina's betrothal. However, this celebration was short-lived as 6 armed men burst into the house. Mina and his parents are incapacitated, but Kaze manages to cut 2 of them down with his Katana. Unfortunately, 3 of them manage to overpower him and pin him to the floor, one of them pulling his hair back to look at the man standing behind Mina and his parents (who were all kneeling in a row). The man takes off his mask and reveals himself to be Katsuki Sinkane. Kaze's eyes widen in shock and horror. Sinkane bids him a pleasant evening before taking a pair of .45s that had been holstered at the small of his back and shoots Kaze's parents in the back of the head, execution style. Sinkane then takes the pistol in his right hand and moves the muzzle to the back of Mina's head. After looking Kaze in the eye for several seconds, he pulls the trigger, killing Mina. Sinkane then holsters his weapons and leaves with his remaining men, leaving Kaze alone in the house with his dead family. After being let up, Kaze half-crawled, half-scampered over to Mina's body, cradling it in his arms and crying hysterically.
  
  Six months later, Kaze resolves to go after Sinkane to avenge the killing of his family. Rett doesn't want any part of it and berates Kaze for it, asking if his desire for vengeance is even about Mina. Kaze tells him to shove off and that it was about her. Rett doesn't believe him and leaves him to his own devices. For the next several months, Kaze scours everywhere in Minketa he can get to, but is having no luck locating Sinkane or any Sigma agents. Thirteen months after the murder, Kaze is taking shelter from a storm in a mountainside cave near a countryside town where a Sigma agent or two was rumored to be hiding. He's leaning against the wall of the cave listening to the storm outside when out of the corner of his eye he spots a discolored section of the wall. He stands up and goes over to it, examining it closely. He runs his right hand along the wall, wondering what it was about. His hand brushes along a slightly raised portion of the discolored section. Curious, he pushes it, releasing a mechanism in the wall that made it slide to the right, leaving a hole. It was a somewhat shallow crevice, holding only what seemed to be a sword. Kaze picks it up, unsheathes it, and reads the inscription on the blade, which causes his (rather painful) transformation. This transformation grants him a few special abilities, including the ability to control a silver fire that's unique to him.
  
  Now, with these new tools at his disposal, Kaze's search for his personal bête noire only intensifies, both trying to find Sinkane (and kill him) and trying to avoid being driven into insanity by the hopelessness of not being able to find him for so long.