[LimitedEternal]

Spoiler for massive length:

Name: Asuka Ikari Tsukuyomi (Kanji: 明日火 - 怒り - 月読 )
Alias: Suncrusher
Current Affiliation: TSAB Military - Special Assignments Division [official rank and position classified]
Race: Human?
Origin: Unknown
Gender: Female
Age: 25 as of post-StrikerS
Height: 6'1" (185.4 cm)
Weight: 176 lbs (79.8 kg)
Hair: Black, shoulder length
Eyes: Flame red
Mage Rank: S+
Melee Skill: Intense
Ranged Skill: NONE
Magic Power: Undefined
Accuracy: Good
Agility: High-Excellent(depending on Jacket form)
Defense: Good-High(depending on Jacket form)
Overall Balance: Strictly Melee
Device: Exelika - longspear, Modular Device
Magic Style: Argentum style (Invented by her, explanation to come later)
Class: Vanguard
Magic Color: Silver
Magic Affinity: Machine

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Shortened Profile:
Nine years ago, the TSA had its first encounter with the girl known as Asuka. At that time, she was a cold-blooded mage fighter whose first seen act by military personnel was to appear literally from thin air; her second, directly before them, to impale a small-time thug they were battling, calm as the eye of a storm.
She agreed to answer for her act, maintaining that she had merely exacted a long-due revenge - for her own death. Skeptical at first, detailed interrogation and analysis proved that, some years before, Asuka had indeed been killed and returned to life, means unknown. Naturally, this fascinated the TSA’s science and top brass alike. In return for allowing herself to be examined and for working on contract for the TSA, she was never charged with murder.
Over the two years she spent as a specially assigned mage, she became good friends with rising stars Nanoha Takamachi-tachi and a well respected user of both her own unique magic and of the then-unique power of artifice. After those two years, she vanished, leaving as she had come - from thin air. It would be seven years before she showed up again.
When the TSA next saw her, it was like meeting someone new - Asuka looked the same as ever, but her old persona of cold-blooded, sarcastic cynicism had changed. She was warmer now, a bit more outgoing, but also more stoic, in the vein of someone who has seen something so profound it changed them. In Asuka's case, it has to have been something horrific - she absolutely will not talk about what happened to her during her long absence, save that it nearly killed her - again.
At some point during her absence, her body has also been cyborged, the legacy of seven years' worth of brutal violence. Some of these components are the result of countless injuries suffered; some, she admits, she added voluntarily.
At the time of her return, she offered her spear formally to the military, and has since been placed in the military's Special Assignments department. Her official designations are classified; she is addressed as “Rook,” a rank equivalent to Major. She essentially has the old-style designation of elite commando - she works alone, in the most dangerous of situations, and has almost unlimited leeway to get things done when all else has failed. Though she remains good friends with most of the former Sixth Division, and indeed spends much of what little free time she has with the only people she considers her friends, she works best alone.

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Personality:
Asuka is a calm, stoic girl who bears many of the signs of living on a battlefield. She's socially awkward around people she doesn't know, and her natural bluntness makes her come across as somewhat emotionless. Though she is distinctly cold-blooded (and rather foul-mouthed) even to close friends, she just isn't very good at expressing herself with words. She's also quick to form opinions and, though she doesn't provoke easily, tends to get non-comically violent if pushed too far.
She has a notorious pathological hatred of being touched - if someone she doesn't know touches her, she's likely to react by physically attacking them, and even her close friends know to keep at arm's length for fear of catching a verbal rebuke.
In battle, she takes a very direct approach to fighting - give no quarter and ask for none. She favors brutally powerful single strikes to "complicated tactical bullshit," to use her words. Her idea of combat is to strike swiftly, with no mercy, and is generally about as fearless a fighter as it gets. She nonetheless is a little archaic in her battle manners - she feels it proper to introduce each other as befits warriors, and generally eschews underhanded tactics - unless the situation demands it. Asuka is also not reckless in her actions; while aggressive in battle and quick to take action at any time, she’s also careful enough to know when to use cunning over power.

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Appearance:
Asuka stands tall at just over six feet, and her rail-thin build gives her a stretched appearance. She's nonetheless got some muscle, and looks quite strong for someone so slim. Due to her extensive cyborging, she's also heavy for someone of her slim build. Her hair is jet black, with a single red highlight down the back, and falls just to her shoulders, worn free. Her eyes are flame red, almost luminous under bright light; her left eye has a noticeable silver stripe among the red. A pattern of three vertical scars run from just below her left eye to halfway down her face - she claims to have had these from birth. Another scar is located just above her waist, horizontal, running all the way along her back.
Asuka's right arm is artificial, metal from hand to shoulder, constructed of a burnished metal as-yet-unknown to the TSAB. Slightly large and thus disproportionate to its owner, it contains a power-wrist very similar to the Revolver Knuckle, reinforced forearm bars for added combat durability, and a concealed blade in the palm, "just in case." Its range of motion is identical to her real arm, though it is somewhat heavy, which can affect her balance in the midst of her dancelike combat style.
Asuka's choice of wear is normally her Barrier Jacket, as she feels most comfortable in it, but on the rare occasions she wears casual clothes, she prefers a tattered black trenchcoat; floor length, split at the waist, and leaving her navel open; as well as a white miniskirt, and a zettai ryouiki of her Jacket's combat boots and fishnet stockings. Occasionally, she’ll add a somewhat random assortment of belts, usually four of more and worn around her legs or flesh arm.

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Skills and Abilities:
Asuka has a unique array of skills both magical and non. When she was revived, her Linker Core was somehow corrupted, rendering her unable to use "normal" magic at all. Her Core still functions; indeed its power has actually been amplified - sharply. She has the total mana potential of five normal mages - and can't make so much as a flashlight with it. Though a moderately skilled mage before reversal, she lost that power - but in the true spirit of warrior, she took her loss stoically, and began to train her body instead. Even before cyborging or even regaining magic power, she had developed freakish physical strength, unnerving dexterity, and near-limitless stamina.
How she came to learn Shaping - the artificing power to psychically manipulate machines - is a mystery, but with that power she began to reclaim magic. In what can only be called inspiration, she imagined a way to use machines to use magic for her, and thus began to remake her Device to do so, utilizing what amount to dedicated, remote mini-Devices to perform magic in her stead. [Covered more thoroughly in the "Device" section. ]
Her now-reclaimed magic is limited in function, but extremely powerful. Balanced towards her preference for melee combat, her magic ability is dedicated short-range - she has ONE long range magic attack and is otherwise limited to short-to-melee ranged combat. Fortunately, twenty years experience in rough-and-tumble melee fighting has given her uncommon skill in close-combat, and she knows ways to fight ranged mages.
Sometime in between her stint as a contract mage and the present time, Asuka cyborged her body - shockingly, she claims to have done so herself, for reasons she's less than forthcoming about. Even more shocking, some of these mechanical inserts are voluntary - she did so, though she hasn't said as much, because she could. These components, many of which are beyond TSA ability to fully comprehend, have augmented her already-great physical abilities even further, but has also had an adverse effect on her magic power, forcing her to artifice her Device even more to keep the balance.
[An up-to-date list of her magic can be found below, in "Spell List."]

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Device:
Asuka's Device is as unique as she is - indeed, it is because she herself is unique that her Device is as well. Its name is Exelika - a name the TSA recognized, when they got around to analyzing it, as a lost artifact of a civilization predating the humans that live on Midchilda today. In their haste to look over its owner, the machine itself was all but ignored until later. Supposedly over ten thousand years old, how Asuka obtained it is unknown; she claims to have "picked it up somewhere."
Owing to her body's natural properties as a result of being brought back, she can't use magic normally. Owing to her uncanny talent for artificing, she has almost completely refitted Exelika to do magic for her, and in her absence has also added two six-shot revolver-style Velkan cartridge systems to it - customized as well. Asuka is completely dependent on her Device to perform magic arts in her stead; she can't even fly without it in hand.
In its sealed form, it takes the shape of a diamond armlet, worn halfway up her upper left arm. Curiously, the armlet remains present even when unsealed. Unsealed, it becomes a longspear, with a cross-shaped, triple-bladed head; each blade is sheathed in colorless energy.
Exelika is a fully sentient Device, able to think, reason, and decide on its own. It speaks several languages, including Asuka's unknown native tongue, though speaks English by default. More importantly, it does so with perfect grammar. If possible, it will try to talk to someone in their preferred language, and calls Asuka “mistress.” It has a male voice similar in pitch to Asuka's own but no explicit gender as a Device. It does, however, have a functional humanoid form, taking the appearance of a distractingly bishonen young man, used by Asuka mainly to communicate is she herself is unable to do so. In contrast to its owner, Exelika is outgoing and optimistic. Its command phrase is “Ikuzo!” (Go!)
Its unique style of arcana is named the Argentum style by her. The secret is in machines called "nodes," small cylindrical remote-controlled drones controlled by the main Device. These nodes are essentially highly dedicated Storage Devices, which work synergistically with a master Device, performing the three steps to using magic: Draw(pulling mana from a Linker Core), Refine(shape that mana into the programmed spell), and Cast(open fire).
Exelika is equipped with nine nodes, eight free ones plus a master control node in the spear itself; eight is the maximum number of free nodes she has figured out how to control at once. The nodes themselves are built of darksteel and indestructible by conventional terms; however they are precision pieces of equipment and sufficient damage will disable them. A disabled (or not in use) node docks in a disk-shaped drone that floats alongside her, where it must auto-repair. (She can also wear said drone on her weapon arm as an impromptu shield. ) Auto-repair takes a full hour and a node cannot undock until repairs complete.
Again, due to her corrupted Core, normal Devices cannot siphon Asuka's mana properly and will either not function or possibly injure her; Exelika has been specially rebuilt to physically tear mana from her, a very inefficient, not to mention stamina-demanding, process; a normal human would be unable to endure the strain for long. Therefore, while she has five times a normal mage's mana, her magic isn't much stronger than any other mage's. Exelika's nodes refine this mana externally as much as possible.
This means that her magic's power is variable; if she uses all eight nodes to cast a given spell, it will be at full strength; using one or two, it won't have as much power. The flip side of this is that each node, as an individual Storage Device, is capable of processing spells individually, so using the above example, she could use one powerful spell or several low-power ones. This is what makes her such a unique mage - she has a limited array of magic, but can inherently vary it more than one might think. Certain properties change depending on the nodal level of a spell; see "Spell List" below.
Exelika's Full Drive is called Halcyon Mode. It ethereally fuses Exelika's nodes to the cybernetic components of Asuka's body, increasing her physical parameters by great amounts, most notably her animal senses, which become inhumanly sharp. The downside is that this mode is apparently painful to use, and she claims extended time can cause injury. She needs no external nodes to utilize this Drive; however, its parameters change if she does invoke some - more used will increase power, but lower the safe usage time.

Device Incantation:
"An oath forged on darksteel blood...Body of iron, mind of steel, soul of silver. Recall ancient's command, metal bowing to forgetten words. With a wish of gold, feel the aether's heartbeat! Now relinquish, look forth, aim for tomorrow! Together, we are the spear! Exelika...Set Up!!!"

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Barrier Jacket:
Though formally named a "Defense Grid" in the Argentum style, Asuka just calls it her “armor”, for it looks like actual armor. A light metal breastplate covers her assets and back, leaving her torso open. Light greaves cover her boots, black knee-length leather combat boots(complete with a knife sheath and knife); a similarly styled but heavy and long bracer covers her flesh arm, which is also clad in an elbow-length, fingerless black leather glove. She wears very short shorts, also in black leather, with extra armor over her hips; long silver sashes hang from each hip plate to floor length. Very small plates guard her shoulders as well. All her armor is the same flame red as her eyes.

Forms:
Aegis form -
A defensive form and its default mode. Aegis form emphasizes protection - up close, all the armor seems to have a mirrored finish, designed to deflect magic energy more efficiently. The Jacket's defensive fields are also more powerful, but she loses some agility for all the protection.

Harpe form -
A speedy form, not preferred by her unless she needs the extra agility. Her armor, already light, becomes even lighter-styled, skeletal more than anything, and the defense fields are all but unpowered to allow for more speed. Her defensive ability suffers while in this form, but her agility is almost unparalleled.

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Spell List:
Asuka's magic is entirely short-range, with a single exception; she's optimized for brutal melee combat.

- Attack -
Arcane Spiral: Long range; bombardment, non-elemental
Launches a concrescent ray from the tip of her spear, straight-flying for over around 300 meters. Slow to charge up but surprisingly efficient and with reasonable power and accuracy, it is Asuka's sole long range spell.

Blasting Wall: Point blank, AOE, non-elemental
Generates a short, violent ripple in the immediate area before her, in the manner of a shockwave. This is an instant-cast spell with almost no firing time; being primarily a disruption move, its offensive power is minimal, though so is its mana use.

Silver Arc: Short range, powered attack, machine-elemental
Diverting a surge of magic onto her spear's triple blades, Asuka spins in place, "throwing" a wave of silver, bladed light a short distance before her. She needs at least two nodes to perform this move. Average in both power and mana use.

Lancer Core: Short range, physical attack, non-elemental
An ace-in-the-hole technique, Asuka shoots Exelika's spearhead off on an energy chain. This doesn't actually need mana to fire and thus can be used anytime; she often uses a cartridge to boost its power. The chain has a range of about 20 meters.

Revolver Hammer: Short range, powered attack, machine-elemental
A direct reverse-engineer of Subaru's similarly named technique; Asuka uses a power weapon on her mechanical arm for this (which also suspiciously resembles the Revolver Knuckle). This move requires a cartridge or two, but no nodes.

Wishblade: Short-range, AOE, non-elemental
Designed specially for use on shielded or armored targets, this spell utilizes a dual-layer effect. Two to four nodes “hold” a mana charge, which builds over time. After a short time, she can fire it as a point-blank spellbomb, which uses its dual layers to punch through AMF and the like.

Iron Cyclone: Short range, powered attack, machine-elemental
Asuka binds multiple nodes to her spear temporarily and uses them to shoot a pressure wave in front of her. If she employs at least three cartridges, this spell has the unique effect of drawing the enemy in rather than forcing them away. Very slow to refire.

Soundbreak: Point blank, powered attack, machine-elemental
Her trademark finishing move, Asuka forms a mana spike within her spear's tip, and stabs the enemy, firing it explosively into her target (and usually drilling a hole in the unlucky victim). This is a killing blow and requires a lot of energy, and four active nodes, to use.

Chronocurse: Short range, powered attack, machine elemental
Asuka's second strongest attack consists of her animating some or all nodes, using cartridges to affix magical blades to them (one per node), and remote-controlling them at high speed. Though very powerful and difficult to block or dodge, she is leaves herself open while using this move.

Forbidden Impact: Short range, powered attack/AOE, non-elemental
Her final offensive tech is to expend at least six cartridges, use at least six nodes, charge for a few seconds, and dashes forward at extremely high speed, sheathed in a violent energy field. She can stop dead mid-flight and fire this energy off like a short-range cannon blast; this variant is called "Sundering Impact." Has positively immense power, but uses much in return.


-Defense-
Hallation: Barrier
Exelika's auto-guard spell. Noticeably weaker than most auto-guards, but is dual-layered to make up for it.

Poly Shield: Shield
Generates a powerful shield between multiple nodes, with size varying from buckler-sized to full-body height. The more nodes used, the stronger the shield is. Best against physical attacks.

Repulsion: Shield
Not a true defense skill, Asuka releases a half-sphere shaped blast of energy. This move deals no damage, but pushes back and disrupts an enemy in close combat.

Silver Palm: Shield
Effectively generates a Poly Shield on her right forearm, further increasing that metal arm's defense at the cost of lowering her offensive strength.

Bastion: Shield
Generates a large, nearly-impenetrable AMF between multiple nodes. The effect is fairly short-lived, but extremely powerful.


-Attach-
A new type of spell unique to Argentum magic, Attach-type spells attach a node to another target, ally or enemy. The node provides a passive ability when attached. They remain attached until the controller releases them; they can also be thrown off like bind effects. Regardless of the attachee, the controller's mana is used to power it and thus can become draining over time. The effect automatically ends if a node is disabled.


Attach/Regenerate:
A positive attach that increases the target's stamina regeneration, granting additional strength to fight.

Attach/Capture:
A negative attach, functioning much like a bind. Most stronger targets can resist a full bind, but will still suffer a great loss of agility.

Attach/Power:
A positive attach, boosting the target's physical strength. Given Asuka's preference for melee combat, the value of this spell is obvious.

Attach/Wither:
Weakens a target's resistance to damage. This does not actually lower defensive parameters; it makes the target more vulnerable to damage dealt.

Attach/Shield:
A positive attach for boosting defense. As with Wither, it doesn't directly boost defensive power, but negates a portion of damage taken.

Attach/Jinx: A negative attach that interferes with the target's mana flow, causing their magic to function erratically, and sometimes uncontrollably.

Attach/Sight: Enhances the target’s vision, both natural and artificial. This increases that target’s perception and sight range, and allows them to better detect stealthed enemies.

Attach/Numbness: Induces numbness in a target’s body, lowering that target’s physical reactions and mobility. Of little effect on constructs and other completely mechanical enemies.


-Other-
Mistwalk: Movement
Allows Asuka to move at extremely high speed, faster than even her own eyes can track her. The catch is that she can only move in a straight line.

Reductor: Break-out
A standard bind/effect breaking skill.

Dragonfly Aspect: Stealth
Shrouds Asuka in a powerful stealth field, rendering her invisible to sight and almost undetectable to most scanners. She cannot use magic or physically attack while the field is up or else it will weaken, revealing her.


-Ceremonial-
Exelika has one mighty ceremonial spell.
Damnation: Unknown range, AOE, unknown elemental
Requires a full stock of nodes and cartridges, Full Drive, and Exelika's human form. Both warriors grasp her spear together, middle and back, and together chant Exelika's incantation – replacing “Set Up!” with the phrase “This ends now!” At the finish, it fires a blast powerful enough to damage the very earth, range and damage unknown. Asuka has never used this spell in view of the TSA, and claims to be unable to use it more than once per week.

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Trivia:

-Although not Japanese, Asuka learned it while working as a contract mage and uses it as if it were her native language; she writes her name, which happens to be pronounced as if it were a Japanese name, in self-assembled kanji and is particularly fond of blunt, masculine-style speech. ("Ore wa Asuka da. Yoroshiku na.")

-"Asuka" written the way her name is in Japanese means "tomorrow's fire," which can be interpreted as a very poetic euphemism for "dawn;" in her native tongue "Asuka" literally means "dawn."

-She loves rock candy; offering her some is a great way to break the ice.

-Conversely, offering her fish of any kind is a good way to make her nauseous (and therefore hate you).

-She also likes to play video games...

-As mentioned above, be very careful not to physically touch her; she really doesn't care what you do, look at, or say as long as you keep your distance.

-Asuka is also fond of a good verbal sparring match.

Whew...so, what do you guys think?

This is an OC I have used several times, she's been a little different each time but I keep using her because she fits so well. I tried to make her unique, and powerful, but without being broken.

Comments/questions/critique is all welcome. If you wanna borrow her for a story or something, that's cool too, just drop me a line.

And with any luck, I'll have someone new before too long.