BUILD
Real name
Hifumi Takeda (武田一二三)
Codename
Warp Blade Hero: Challenger (ワープブレイドヒーロー チャレンジャー)
Short description
Challenger is a freshman from Shiketsu High taking its prestigious Hero Course. Thanks to his father's instructions, he's a 3rd dan in Kendo, and thanks to his delinquent also quite a proficient brawler. His Quirk allows him to teleport when he closes his eyes. His dream is to become the coolest man there is: the number one hero.
Full build
Build
Timeline
Multiplayer - Just Another Story
Location
Multiplayer - Asia, Japan
Career
Hero Student
Student Customization
Freshman
Hero Family
Costume
Armored
General Modifiers
Athletics - fighting focused
Martial Arts - Kendo - 8 years
Martial Arts - Street fighting - 4 years
Public Relations
Unique Style
Weapon
Poverty
Quirk
Teleportation
Target: Self
Target: Others
Function: Blinking
Method: Touch
Range: Long
Extras: Somatic Component
Quirk Modifiers
Quirk Refinement x12
Pictures
Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gY6NXq2-I
Background
Hifumi was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, although both of his parents are Japanese. His father was back then a coach for a German national kendo team. Hifumi's father always wanted a son, so when he finally got one after having three daughters he was overjoyed and chose the name wishing that he will be man enough for three sons and will bring balance to Takeda family. When Hifumi was five, his father lost the coaching position and they moved back to Japan. From that day till now, they live in Kyoto. Hifumi doesn't remember much from his time back in Germany, but saying that he was born there always sounds cool.
And coolness is very important to Hifumi. He gets very inspired by characters and actions that invoke in him that feeling. His whole personality is an amalgamation of traits of characters that wowed him at some point in his life.
The first of such characters was his own father. He was "the man" in Hifumi's childish mind. From him he inherited the passion for kendo and physical improvement. He was his first coach and Hifumi continues to train under him when he can, looking for tips on how to improve his swordsmanship.
Later on, Hifumi got a bit torn between two styles. On one hand, he got very into yankee manga and the idea of becoming "the boss" of the school which resulted in him constantly getting into fights to see who's stronger. He still has that competitive edge in him and likes a good fight.
On the other hand, he did have a bit of a chuuni phase that ended up with him fawning over brooding characters with dark pasts and overly verbose attack names. Luckily, he largely grew out of that, though he still tends to throw an edgy line here and there.
When he finally did become the number one at his school, he sought other challenges. He tried his hand at fighting kids from other schools and expanding his area of influence, but he didn't find it as fun anymore. He wanted something more. And that's when he found an answer to his mother's constant nagging about him having to choose what he's going to do with his future. Since their return to Japan, his father worked part time as a sidekick in a hero agency, but it was Endeavour's struggle to become the number one hero that inspired Hifumi and set his sight at being a hero. He decided that he's going to share Flame Hero's dream. After all, is there a dream more worthy of a man than challenging the strongest man on the planet - the number one hero? All that while working to protect others? His mind was made and his parents accepted that.
He studied hard to get to the best Hero Course he could, and successfully got accepted into one of the best in Japan. He joined the Shiketsu High School and when time came, after many ideas that were rejected by his advisors, he finally chose his hero name: "Challenger" - reflecting his dream and aspiration to always aim higher. As for the title, he went with "Warp Blade Hero" - showcasing his style, without giving too much away.
Now he's giving it his all to improve himself with the help of his teachers and classmates so that one day he may succeed at becoming the number one hero and by extension the number one coolest guy in his own mind.
Quirk Details
Quirk Name: Blink.
Challenger's Quirk allows him to teleport when he closes his eyes.
To activate the quirk, Challenger has to close his eyes and make a detailed mental image of a place he wants to go to. Once the space is his mind is sufficiently close to the place in reality, he gets transported there. He can stay in the new place as long as he keeps his eyes shut, once he opens at least one eye, he returns to where he teleported from.
Creating a mental image that's distant from his current location and sufficiently detailed for the quirk to activate is not easy. Unless it's a place he's very familiar with like his room, he needs to either spend a lot of time on creating the image and matching the minor details, or limit himself to places in close range that are freshly in his memory. As such he is unable to travel to a place he has never seen, places that have significantly changed since he has last seen them, nor places that he forgot the details of.
The process of making the mental image takes time, but the travel itself once that's done is instantaneous. The process of return takes only as long as opening one's eyes. The use of a quirk doesn't involve any additional visual or auditory effects. One moment he's standing in one place concentrating with his eyes closed, another he's in the second place, and then once again he's back where he was initially standing. It all happens in but a blink of an eye, hence the quirk name.
When teleporting, he can easily carry with him his clothes, costume and weapon as he thinks of them as an extension of himself and got used to including them in his mental image. He is able to carry with him something or someone else that he grabs if he can extend that way of thinking to it, but so far, the success ratio wasn't so good. When he did manage to do it, he had to keep in contact with the extra objects to affect them. By grabbing and letting them go in time, he was able to limit the transport of them to only one side of the jump if he wanted to. He hopes that through practice and the help of teachers at his new school, he will eventually learn to do it reliably.
In combat, he mostly uses the quirk for short range nearly-instantaneous jumps that only slightly affect his position so he can perform them without much preparation. He uses it both to enhance his offense by striking from an unexpected angles and positions, as well as to enhance his defence by getting out of the ways of the enemies' strikes effective range. His favourite move that takes a bit longer to prepare is teleporting behind someone. Sometimes he can't help it but throw in a one-liner before making the final strike.
This Quirk is not without weaknesses. The fact that while teleporting he has to keep his eyes closed is a big vulnerability, despite his attempts to develop his other senses. He also has no choice in returning to his previous position so an enemy that understands his Quirk can set up a trap for him there. If Challenger gets knocked out while using his quirk, even when still unconscious, he will return to the place he teleported from when his eyes are opened, which makes evacuating him in a critical situation more difficult. A situation in which he is prevented from opening and closing his eyes will also prevent him from using his Quirk.
He is unable to teleport inside solid objects as he can't create a mental image of that, but since the place he returns to is relative to Earth, there is a chance that something appeared in it since the last time he was there. In such cases after he returns, he is instantly repelled out of the object that he teleported into due to his own body mass being unable to overlap with any other pre-existing mass.
While teleporting he can alter the way his body is posed, but this also makes the creation of mental image slightly more difficult and it will also be reverted on return, just rotating his body without changing its relative pose is easier.
His body keeps the momentum it had before teleporting relative to itself and it's not negated on either side of the blink. For example, if he's falling backwards, then after teleporting he will still be falling backwards even if the position pre and after teleportation are rotated. He's still not very proficient at the manoeuvres that exploit that trait, but it is theoretically possible for him to perform moves such as teleporting into the air first to build up downward momentum that after returning will greatly enhance the force of his strike or let him replicate an ability to make big jumps. He could also nullify his falling speed by repeatedly blinking with inverted positions. Those manoeuvres could be very versatile, but they are risky if he miscalculates and are rather slow with their preparations, so he doesn't use them much at the moment. Maybe that will change after he learns to control them better.
Equipment
Challenger's hero costume is a sci-fi looking, samurai inspired armour.
His weapon is a sword with a built-in sheath that can hide the edge making it a blunt and relatively non-lethal instrument. It lights up to signify the mode it's currently in.
Family
Father:
Hidehisa Takeda (武田英久)
A kendo instructor and a part time hero sidekick, who struggles economically due to rescinding popularity of sports. For a time, he was a coaching German national kendo team, but when Hifumi was five years old, he lost the position and he moved back to Japan with his family. They now live in Kyoto on his minor pay and struggle with debt of credits he took to move to the Germany in the first place. To cope with payments Hidehisa works as an instructor for several school clubs and private dojos as well as a sidekick at a minor hero agency in the city suburbs. He doesn't come from a rich family or one with long tradition of kendo instructors, so despite his dream of opening a dojo of his own, he never managed to earn enough to realize it, especially with the financial troubles they are in right now. He lacks any work skills unrelated to a sword use and those aren't that profitable, so he has to juggle multiple jobs.
Quirk "Afterimage": His quirk is an ability to create afterimages as he moves. He tried using it to start in the Quirk category in kendo but it was not enough to close the gap to other more powerful quirks, so he mostly participates in the category where Quirk use is banned. It does help confuse some targets of the heroes he works under in the agency.
Relationship with Hifumi: He is very proud of him. Even when his son was getting into brawls, his first reaction was asking if he won and then beaming with happiness if he did, or giving tips how to win the next time if he didn't… before muttering an obligatory line of "violence doesn't solve anything" that his wife makes him say in such situations. A bit saddened by the fact that he son chose as his hero role model Endevour rather than him, but he can't deny the difference in their rankings.
Mother:
Satoko Takeda (武田郷子)
A piano teacher and composer. She often complains that she has to work to help the family budget despite Hidehisa promising as he proposed that she will be able to be a proper housewife one day when he opens his own dojo, becomes famous and revitalizes the sword culture. Despite their financial problems, she loves and cares for her husband and children, and uses that nagging just as a little way to destress and knock Hidehisa down a peg when he gets too proud. She never truly took his bragging seriously, but she agreed to marry him anyway, knowing that she might have one day make up for the financial savvy her husband lacks.
Quirk "Imagination": Her quirk allows her to create especially vivid mental landscapes and she uses it as an inspiration when composing.
Relationship with Hifumi: Constantly fuming over the many times she was called over to school over Hifumi's behaviour. Tries to correct him as much as she can, and prays that one day she finally succeeds.
Oldest Sister:
Kazuha Takeda (武田一葉)
Hifumi's eldest sister. She's ten years older than him. She works as a preschool teacher. As a kid she was a tomboy, trying to ingratiate herself into father's favour. She used to roughhouse a lot with other kids in the neighbourhood. Soon after Hifumi was born and father's attention shifted to him, she turned to more ladylike interests and is now usually a calm, patient and polite young woman. Despite that, her naturally violent personality sometimes seeps through when she's angry, so her younger sisters that remember their early childhood are still too scared to mess with her.
Quirk "Picture book": She can show images from her mind to others in a form of a large picture book with illustrations displaying them in great detail.
Relationship with Hifumi: She's the doting older sister. Her experience of helping take care of Hifumi when he was small was in part why she chose the career path she did.
Second Older Sister:
Fujiko Takeda (武田芙二子)
Hifumi's second older sister. She's eight years older than he is. She works in middle management of a major music publishing company. Used to bossing around her younger siblings, she successfully transplanted that to her work and quickly rises in ranks despite her young age. She's ambitious, energetic, outgoing and unafraid to speak her mind to all except Kazuha. Helps out a lot with the family budget despite Hidehisa's constant protests that he can't burden his child with that.
Quirk "Echo": She can play back any sound she heard and remembers.
Relationship with Hifumi: She's the teasing older sister that dragged Hifumi into her schemes, tricks and pranks, that usually ended with both of them getting into troubles.
Youngest Older Sister:
Mina Takeda (武田三奈)
Hifumi's third older sister. She's five years older than Hifumi. She's a university student studying classical literature. Shy and bookish type, she rarely speaks and when she does it's barely audible. Lacks much of her own will besides wanting to be left alone with her books. She only stops reading when her older sisters drag her out of her room and she's too weak to protest it. As a result, she ended up being the "sheltered kid" of the family.
Quirk "Full Immersion": She can fully immerse herself into any story she's reading, embracing the role of a character of her choice.
Relationship with Hifumi: Due to her small posture and shy nature, her relationship with Hifumi got kind of reversed a couple years ago and now it's him that acts as the older brother very protective of his lil sis.
Uncle Hiroshi has a ramen shop; middle-aged and balding
Father: Hidehisa Takeda
When speaking to him: pops, dad
When speaking about him to others: old man (can also be used to him, if he's trying to taunt him during kendo practice), dad, father
How he calls Hifumi: Hifumi, son
Mother: Satoko Takeda
When speaking to her: mum, ma
When speaking about her: mother, mum, ma
How she calls Hifumi: Hi-chan, Hifumi (when she's angry), son (when she's talking about something serious), bunny
Oldest Sister: Kazuha Takeda
When speaking to her and about her: Kazu-nee, sis
How she refers to Hifumi: Hi-chan, Hi-kun
Second Older Sister: Fujiko Takeda
When speaking to her and about her: Fuji-nee, sometimes Fu-nee, sis
How she refers to Hifumi: Hikkun, Hi-kun, Hifumi, Hi-chan (when teasing him), bro, bunny (when double teasing)
Youngest Older Sister: Mina Takeda
When speaking to her and about her: Mina-nee, Mi-nee, Mina, sis
How she refers to Hifumi: Hifumi, Hi-kun, brother
Ramen shop uncle: Takeda Hiroshi
When speaking to him or about him: Uncle Hiroshi, Uncle
How he refers to Hifumi: Hifumi, the kid
Mindset
88342642
In that case maybe some little extra clarification of the mindset, just in case I made something unclear (if I try to explain it in 3 ways, then maybe at least one will understandable despite my rambling, right?)
Top hero vs unsung hero
Both are great, and are doing something valuable, but the top heroes do it on a bigger scale alone, and because their actions are promoted as individual accomplishments, they work better as inspiration for others, so they not only solve the situation at hand, but also build a legacy that will give rise to other people wanting to help out in the future. Like in the show, the example of All Might motivated both Deku and Bakugo. For Hifumi it was Endeavour because it's that rising to the challenge that he finds cool (and All Might's existence in the MP was under questioning when I came up with that, and now even more so).
Challenge and confidence
Two things come into play here that are cool: rising to the challenge (it's "Challenger" after all), and helping others grow. If we separate people to fight with into roughly the three categories of "They stomp Hifumi", "Hifumi stomps them", and "A fair fight" the approaches to them differ. But basically, the underdog gets the hype treatment.
They stomp Hifumi
This is the challenge part. It's in stepping up to it and possibly overcoming it that the coolness is formed. Realising the dream of becoming the number 1 hero is a huge task, that's why he'll speak about it confidently. Facing this task with one's all efforts is cool, and Hifumi does it, so he deserves to speak about it confidently. It also works a bit as autosuggestion that will help him face the task. If he were to go to fight someone he believes is stronger than him, he'd go into the fight with confidence in his words, because otherwise that's bailing from the challenge and that's not cool.
I might be overexaggerating here a bit. He's not (that) dumb, he won't try to facetank a train because it'd be cool, or try to solo the entire Night Parade when they attack and the teacher tells the students to run. Accomplishing those deeds would be cool, but not feasible, and doing something you know will fail is kinda pointless. The chance of success to qualify here should be small, but not zero, and preferably based on effort and skill not luck. Winning a lottery isn't "a challenge", becoming a number 1 hero through putting in the hard work is.
Hifumi stomps them
There is no challenge here, so displaying needless confidence is just bragging/bullying. What can take place here is trying to help the other side grow through the experience here. So, he'd give them hints, hype them up and so on. Remember how I mentioned his reaction to winning too easily against someone would result in him dragging them off to train? Basically, the same concept. If someone is in the range that normally Hifumi knows he'll trounce them, but with small adjustment he might make the fight fair (quirk vs no quirk, using left-hand only and so on) he might do that. For now there is not much of an occasion for this as he's just a freshman, maybe when sparring with classmates that are not combat focused, but once he becomes a senpai he might spar like that with underclassmen, or if we look at far off future of him being a pro, he'd use this method to train his interns.
Same as with challenges it doesn't really apply to extremes. He's not gonna handicap himself when doing daily chores just because they are too easy. When fighting small fry villains, they don't get the Goku treatment of, "yeah, buff up first", they are evil and need to be stopped, at most they will get a chance to surrender (and even that might be absent if it's critical to keep things stealthy).
A fair fight
This is the mix between the two. His chances are a bit too good to brag, but enough to give it his all with no handicaps. The goal is to have a match where at the end, both sides come out of it stronger in that experience, and can use it to measure how much their efforts till this day let them develop, and possibly understand each other better. And he'd expect similar from the other side. Some banter sure, but going "I will surely beat you" is negating the efforts his opponent put in their training and might make them doubt themselves if it happens, and that's not cool. So, it's mostly "I'll give it my all", "Let the best man win" etc.