K.I.K.U.

Appearance

The Japanese have always been very traditional by nature, so even with the advent of a new reality, with the cyberpunk era replacing familiar things, they have not lost touch with their ancestors.

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Specific Traits

Faction Background

The Japanese always had tradition embedded into every fiber of their being, so it wasn’t surprising that even several decades later, in this completely new reality, very little had changed. The exception was, of course, the great advances in the technological way-of-life ushered in by the Cyberpunk Era. Nevertheless ancestry was to respected and celebrated, thus the K.I.K.U faction uses attire featuring combinations of red and green, complemented by streaks of gold, connecting them to the very core of traditional Japanese culture and architecture, such as the Emperor palace in Kyoko or torii gates in Shinto shrines.

For this same reason, elements of traditional Samurai armor from the Edo period are incorporated in their clothing, especially combat gear.

Japanese faction characters often wear traditionally inspired masks or helmets on their faces, to both shield themselves from evil spirits and to harness the powers of those metaphysical entities to their side. Yet unlike the traditional porcelain masks, these items are often made of metal and cover either half of the face or the whole face.

An inherently innovative and technological people, their ranks are rich in computer hackers and technological prowess. Members of the K.I.K.U. faction blend this skill perfectly with the past by integrating it into their demon masks devices for programming, hacking, scanning and infiltration, perfecting them into splendid devices.

They are known for not being partial to tattoos – the traditional Yakuza body tattoos are a characteristic on the Nobel Mafia faction, rather their trait is to combine tradition and technology and always sticking together regardless of how desperate the circumstances may seem, one of the strongest features of their national character. This is why in NEO they are only to live in Japan town.

Technology being their main activity, the faction itself is divided into two sub-groups. One, known as the Sutsu, wants to work for the big corporations and share on the profits and technological knowledge at the highest tiers of society, the other, the Hogo-Sha, believes that they should, as one, stand up to the corporations and fight for the little people. The latter are known to open small businesses as shops or modest service stores, while the former are know to hack into corporations’ intranets or private systems… for the right price.