Name: Kazuki Takahashi
Nickname: Daniel
Age: 19
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 138 lbs
Occupation: Stopped one year from graduation with a B.A. in Global Affairs from Yale, minoring in Italian and Russian. Now he works as "Big Daddy's" translator
Sexuality: Straight
Likes:
- Classical literature
- Learning New languages
- Studying
- Being organized
- Video games
- Tea
- Takoyaki
- His mother's cooking
- Being comfortable
Dislikes:
- Meeting new people
- Being surrounded by large groups of people
- Feeling uncomfortable
- Being indebted to the underworld
- His mother's illness
- Hamburgers
- Illiterate people
Personality:
Daniel is the bookish nerd that everyone had in their high school; not the one everyone knew and hated however, the one nobody noticed until he was placing first in all the standardized tests. Needless to say, he is the epitome of a wallflower- always sitting out of the conversations or attempting to attract as little attention as possible. When he is dragged into the center of attention he tends to shrink into himself and speak as softly as possible, especially when the main subject of the conversation or his conversation partner is a pretty female. Although he isn't good at conversing with them, he is infinitely kind to women and will do anything to take care of them, a remnant of living solely with his mom for his entire life.
His shyness doesn't extend to all aspects of his life, however, as he is willing to fight to make good grades; which isn't totally unexpected as he grew up with the stereotypical strict Asian mother. He is constantly trying to improve himself in any way possible and can be found anywhere at any time with his nose in a book reading up on anything from Gilgamesh to astro-physics. Even though his love of education stemmed from his mother's urging, he is truly passionate about learning. This passion is one of the reasons that he attended Yale, despite the fact that he nor his mother could really afford it.
History:
Born to a Japanese mother and an American military father, Kazuki spent his early years living with his parents in the city of Tokyo. However, when he turned five years old his father was re-stationed and the whole family was forced to pick up and move to the United States. Because he was so young at the time, the moving was more of an adventure to Daniel than anything else and he quickly forgot he missed Japan and his family there, but his mother never let him forget his heritage- speaking to him every day in Japanese so he wouldn't forget the language. In America, the small family settled in to a neighborhood full of different ethnicities. This new neighborhood was the beginning of Kazuki- now renamed Daniel-'s love for and interest in languages; while he and his parents lived here, it was the happiest he was for his whole life.
Shortly after his eleventh birthday, Daniel's father was deployed to Iraq- where he lost his life in a raid. Although his mother could have returned them to Japan, during the time they lived in the U.S. both her mother and father had died leaving her with no relations to depend upon; so instead, she chose to keep them in the U.S.- working around the clock to support her and her son. Even though she was always tired and constantly stressed, she made sure that her son studied hard and got everything he could when it came to his education. Daniel was sent to the best private schools she could afford, and would have had tutors if he'd ever needed them. In turn, he did his best to make his mother proud- eventually skipping both fourth and fifth grade and graduating high school at the age of sixteen.
Despite the fact that he argued and fought her tooth-and-nail, Daniel's mother forced him to apply for the best schools in the country as a business major so he could put his big brain and language skills to use (by this point he was already fluent in not only English and Japanese, but Thai, Korean, and two dialects of Chinese as well). A few months after sending in all his applications, he received an acceptance letter from Yale University. No matter what excuses he made- he couldn't live her alone, they couldn't afford it, etc- his mother forced him to accept, and before he knew it he was in Connecticut. Everything was going perfect- he even made the Dean's list- until he got a call half-way through his junior year. His mother had collapsed at her job and had been rushed the the hospital. That day Daniel packed up and flew home, knowing he'd probably never see Yale again, but worried about his mother.
When he arrived home the doctors informed him that his mother had a heart disease and that she would need to stay in the hospital indefinitely. Later that same day- while cleaning his mother's small apartment- he found her bank account statements, and realized just how much debt his mother had piled up for his education. With nowhere else to turn, Daniel found himself in the darkest part of the city looking for someone-anyone willing to lend him the money. That's when he met Mr. Occheto, who had been willing to lend him the money to pay back his mother's debts and to help pay for her hospital care. The only thing required in exchange? That he pay it off by working for the man. Daniel couldn't refuse, and soon he found himself under Mr. Occheto's employ, translating documents and accompanying his new boss and his associates on international business deals. The only way he could sleep at night was to tell himself it was for his mother, and that at least he was using the degree he'd studied so hard for.