[SNPC/Esper] Edogawa Kai

FULL NAME: Edogawa Kei.
ALIAS: Vicious Cycle.
AGE: 16 years.
GENDER: Male.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Does it matter? There is no such thing as a wanted poster for the mysterious assassin that is Vicious Cycle. None of his prey has ever managed to escape, none of his customers have ever met him face to face and in no way was there ever imagery taken of his face. All they ever see is an unending tirade of traps, relentlessly crushing all hope before his victim’s very own eyes.
Yet for those that have had the fortune of meeting the timid individual that is Edogawa Kei, the pleasure of meeting an ordinary highschool boy is all they will gain. He is frail, skinny and below the average height for boys, only reaching 1.61m at best. His black hair is short and slightly wild, as though he never actually bothers to care for it after waking up in the morning. His purple eyes most certainly make his most remarkable feature, are they like round disks of pure bliss. And to round things up there is the soft, innocent smile he would occasionally force onto his lips. Truthfully to those who do not know about the way he makes his living, he would appear to be nothing but an innocent, shy and frail boy. A cute child, meant to be loved and appreciated.

PERSONALITY:
Living Pragmatism
Given his profession and not his existence as a teenager in the best years of his life, Edogawa Kai is quite focussed on his work, not to say obsessed. He wants to get it done. That’s his top priority in all instances. No further words to waste. No funny games. Just delivering inescapable death traps to his targets. Period.

Gourmet
He likes modern Japanese food classics. Or in short, he loved convenience store bentos. Even on the job you would hardly find him without any packed into his equipment belt, using whatever occasion there is to take a small bite of what is on the menu for today. Naturally he would eat it with a pair of chop sticks he’d just carry around him equally. Little surprising, however, should be his preference of maritime foods over vegetables, chicken, beef and pork.

Inexperienced
No, this does not refer to his work in the field of an assassin, but to his life as a decent human being – or rather a boy in the prime of puberty. He has never had a girlfriend or hardly ever talked to girls at all. Therefore, he doesn’t know how it works. It even scares him. Whenever there are girls around he usually acts rather nervous, unable to commit to proper communication most of the time. That is, until he manages to finally put on his mask of professionalism. After all, not even that would keep him from a good kill.

Cute
The reputation of Vicious Cycle might be that of one of Academy City’s most cold-blooded killers, but that doesn’t change the fact that the man behind the mystery is actually a cute looking and cute behaving boy. Nobody in their lives outside of the job would even take notice of him in any strange way or assume that he is in fact one of the most lethal killers out there. No, if he’d be noticed for anything then it would be the cuteness found in each and any aspect of his being, ranging from his looks to his overall behaviour.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
One of Academy City’s most dangerous assassins. Vicious Cycle, while oftentimes perceived as an entire group, is actually just a single individual named Edogawa Kai. Dropped off into the city as a child error shortly after his birth he was never able to feel the love of his parents, nor enjoy an ordinary upbringing. With strange experimental programs running here and there, he was quickly absorbed into one of the countless laboratories spread all over the city.

In his case, however, the laboratory in question was not seeking an opportunity to create a high-level monster of an Esper or some sort of powered abnormality. In fact, the ability he held did not matter at all. Instead what the researchers sought was a test-subject for advanced drugs meant to be used in the Power Curriculum Program solely meant to explore the limits of dangers of said sedatives. By nature, children without any caretakers were considered to be the ideal brand of expendable lab rats. Therefore, Edogawa spent his entire childhood undergoing phenomena no person would ever endure keeping their sane mind in the aftermath. And in fact he had lost most of it.

Eventually, however, the facility using him was shut down in silence upon having run out of things to test out, dropping him off as one of the countless useless specimen it could no longer use. While they did make sure to move him towards a school and thus a dormitory, return into a normal life was nothing he had ever been granted support for. Instead, now entirely by himself he had to figure out where to go on his own. He didn’t fit in with the others and he didn’t have a place to go back to. Thus, he had to pick up something new solely for himself.

Fate may have been his guide when arriving at his darkest hour, but it came in a truly macabre way. What many would describe as an accident would transform into a boy’s moment of calling. One of his class mates had died right in front of him, having been trapped underneath a gigantic wreck of a construction machine. However, while he was still alive the moment it had happened, it was clear that once they would remove the machine he would die. However, if they left him there he would also die. Both choices lead towards a clear and desperate dead end. A vicious cycle forcing a life to the brink of hopelessness.

Changed by the thrilling experience Edogawa had found brand new purpose in his life. At first, he would only experiment occasionally, then it would transform into his hobby and at long last he had made it a profession similar to an art. Killing was not simply something he excelled it, but something he did with style and perfection. Crushing all hopes under the idea of an elaborately conceited death trap was simply what he was meant to do. Thus, the infamous assassin for hire Vicious Cycle was born.

ABILITIES:
Assassination Artist
Vicious Cycle, as his code name suggests, is an assassin specialising in the creation of inescapable circumstances. This, however, does not simply entail the idea of trapping someone into a locked room filled with lethal gas or sniping a target from three locations at the same time, but actually presenting them with an elaborate death trap, usually set up in the shape of undesirable circumstances piled on top of each other. As an example for this kind of approach one could take a scenario where a target is moving on an open street. The street is empty except for a number of parked cars. The initial attack is sniping the target. However, if the target were to notice the sniper or in one way or the other dodge the bullet, they would be greeted by carefully placed proximity mines hidden underneath the cars. If they were to notice the mines, the distraction would lead them to be shot by the sniper rifle. Lastly if they were able to block the bullet, a signal would be released upon its destruction, immediately triggering the mines to go off. So to say, whichever of the three most likely possibilities the target chooses in one way or the other, the created circumstances will come to take the kill, crushing all hope right before their eyes. A true vicious cycle.

Modified S3 Stingray Stealth Suit
Originally the S3 Stingray Stealth Suit was designed to help prevent detection by military surveillance, like heat sensors. The suit functions by constantly releasing special gasses into the air forming a protective cloud around the wearer. This cloud enables the wearer a slight alteration to the surrounding air, thus causing them blend in way better with their direct surroundings. As a result, most scanners will be fooled to not notice their presence in the first place.
However, through means of modification Vicious Cycle abstracted the concept of releasing gases into the air to his own purposes. Instead of using the standard gases specially developed to fool sensors, he relies on drugs provided to him by PHARMACY. These drugs when inhaled can weaken the body of ordinary people to a certain degree, reaching up to the point of an overdose after too long and heavy an exposure. As such being in proximity to the suit, especially in restricted spaces can be lethal for most people after only a few minutes. The more they breathe the deeper the toxins will go and the closer to death they come.

I-N-K Mudball Projectile Launchers
The I-N-K Mudball projectiles were originally conceived to be weaponry for stealth usage. Given the shape of ordinary mud balls, only differentiated by their artificially greyish colour, they occur hardly dangerous. If thrown however, the increase in temperature caused by air friction will cause a chemical reaction transforming those simple mud balls into truly lethal projectiles. Depending on the speed at which they are launched they should theoretically assume a behaviour similar to a sniper rifle round or above, thus easily piercing most average armour.
The launcher used by Vicious Cycle is a balloon shaped drone connected to Vicious Cycle’s stealth suit usually floating above his head similar to a lanternfish’s lantern. The drone itself dispenses small amounts of the I-N-K Mudball Projectiles into all directions equally, thus working like a consistent yet unpredictable attack stream covering the entire area in his surroundings.
Furthermore, he also uses specially modified bullets on his guns and sniper rifles made from the projectiles containing the I-N-K Mudball formula, naturally increasing the damage output of all weapons used in combat.

Urch-N Micro Mines
The final piece in Vicious Cycle’s collection are mines the sizes of a flake of popcorn. These mines work by a simple two impact principle. The first impact serves as the activation, the second immediately detonates them. As a result, the mines function perfectly as throwing projectiles, are they easily spread and then activated once a careless individual steps on the tiny objects. Naturally, their explosive power is great enough to blow an average human’s limb off just like that.
Vicious Cycle, the sadist that he is, prefers hiding some of these mines in occasional blobs of his I-N-K Mudball projectiles, thus increasing their damage potential significantly. After all, even following up a missed strike they projectiles would serve to become a lethal death trap beyond their failure.

Trap Master
It goes without saying, but given his specialty Vicious Cycle is a true Trap Master par excellence. He knows how to set up traps in truly mischievous and entirely unfair ways and would use any occasion to do so. Given how much time, thought and detail he invests into his set-ups most traps he conceives are certain to be lethal, should there be no natural way out.

Marksman
Not his most significant skill, yet still worth mentioning. Vicious Cycle knows his way around the majority of gun-types, making him able to work with both handguns and sniper rifles alike. He is no prodigy, but he’s still somewhat good.

FACE CLAIM: Kumagawa Misogi from Medaka Box