Akira

Name: Akira (Japanese: bright; Indian: “graceful strength”; Thai: sunlight)

Nicknames: Aki, Sparks (at first only from Cid, later adapted by Lea)

Homeworld: Radiant Garden

Weapon: Enchanted Daggers

Abilities: She is a skilled and quick fighter with her daggers and can also use Fire and Thunder magic, which she likes to combine.

Personality: At first glance Akira appears to be an outgoing, devotional and sassy person, who has a big protective streak for her homeworld and it’s people. Behind this facade of never ending optimism she hides a lot of fear, grief and guilt. She isn’t unwelcome towards other people, but she still holds everyone at arms length and refuses to call anyone a friend, afraid that someone would sacrifice themselves for her again. 

Story: Akira lived in Radiant Garden until the Heartless attacked the world. She had to watch people she knew getting her heart stolen and swallowed by the darkness. It almost got her too, but her best friend was able to safe her and was consumed in her stead. After that she was able to flee with Leon and the others to Traverse Town, but she felt into a deep depression. Some of the darkness had taken place in her body and fed from her guilt she felt from her friend’s sacrifice. 
Before the darkness could consume Akira’s heart, her friend’s own heart was able to find and merge with hers, protecting her with it’s pure light. (This all happens without Akira’s knowledge.) Up to this day, the darkness tries to get a hold of both hearts, something it seems to achieve soon. 
In the next years Akira trains with the help of Leon, Yuffie, Merlin and the others to become strong enough to protect the people around her. When they were able to go back to Radiant Garden and remembered it’s true name, Akira declared she wanted to become the Guardian of the world some day. 

Yeah, my renewed love for Kingdom Hearts got so strong that I even made me an OC, something I didn’t dare to do 10 years ago. xD
I didn’t make her a keyblade wielder, simply because I didn’t want to. It would have put her too much into the spot of a main character and with KHs muddled/inconsistent storyline I didn’t want to dare it. A side character can easily be more edited and fit into the current story. (And I’m very nit-picky. Researched a lot of stuff, so I could fit her in a good way.)

Thanks to @metazensae for being happily on the receiving ends about my KH ramblings. Her listening to me really spurred me into developing this character more and I’m surprised how complex Akira already is. 
Also big thanks to my dear friend Riza, who did an excellent job in bringing my ideas for her design to paper!

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