[attr="class","header2"]APPEARANCE

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Akita is descended from the children of American soldiers abandoned when the United States military pulled out of Japan. Part of an ethnic group that formed in the aftermath of that, Akita was left ostracized by the majority of Japanese society as a child and grew up in the slums surrounding what used to be an air base in Okinawa. When the social services eventually came to “rescue” these lost children and integrate them into society, he was ripped away from his family - the Philipps - and placed with a wealthy family that wanted someone with a powerful Quirk to raise and produce children for them. Akita’s life ever since then has been anything but what he wanted, and he resorted to secretly committing crime as a way to escape his powerful family’s oversight and rebel against them.

Akita was happy with the Philipps. He remembers them still, since he was taken away when he was 8. That was too old to forget them, but young enough to still have a chance of “integrating” him into the broader Japanese society. Food was rough to get, and fights were something Akita often got into - though as he got older and his venom got stronger thanks to his family giving him as much of their food as possible since he and his little sibling needed it to grow the most they became less common as word of what he was capable of spread. Unfortunately for him, it spread far enough that those responsible for sweeping in and cleaning up this area of Japan to prep it for wealthy settlers knew about. A bribed figure here or there in a government left the powerful Fujimori family with the perfect way to find some kid they could get somewhere with the type of Quirk they wanted since his new adopted “parents” themselves were infertile.

Akita had three siblings. One older, one younger. They were both ripped away from him when the bad men came to take him away and take him to his new family. They’re still out there somewhere, and Akita knows where the younger one is at least. The younger one became a Student, and Akita kept an eye out for them. The older one, though, he wasn’t sure. Sometimes, money would make its way to his younger sibling from anonymous donations but he was too scared to approach them just yet. His younger sibling probably didn’t need the issues he would bring into his life just yet, but that’s beside the point: back to Akita’s childhood.

Akita’s family would hire private tutors for their kid as he grew up, providing lessons through a retired Pro Hero who would willing to look the other way when it came to the Fujimori family’s
“Unique” child rearing style. Corporal punishment was just one method by which Akita was punished. Whenever he would speak the dialect of Japanese mixed with English that he grew up with, he’d be punished - quite brutally. Nonetheless, his parents were happy because by the time he was 16 he seemed to have “grown out” of his bad habits and conformed to what they wanted. It was a lie, of course. He didn’t conform; he just started swiping things from skyscrapers with his webbing from passers-by and, after not getting caught for a while, he felt safety in this new outlet for all the emotions and impulses and unresolved anger that left him more of an outcast in society.

When they were happy with him, at least, Akita noticed they were loving - almost sickeningly doting over him and fawning over everything he accomplished while they tried to find someone for him from a “proper” family to get into an arranged marriage with so he could produce the next generation of Fujimori for them. It’s not that Akita wasn’t into women that was the issue. He was - just enough to have kids, but he really preferred men and when his parents realized that he thought all hell would break lose. The Fujimori tradition of only producing heirs through blood already broken though, and with his adoptive father dead of a heart attack by 43 his mother was fine with yet another generation being adopted if need be - as long as their legacy was continued and he could inherit the family company.

His habits as a thief would only grow, and they’d escalate. It wasn’t long before he ended up having to defend himself against an old shopkeeper that came at him with a baseball bat. He defended himself instinctively, paralyzing the man’s throat with his hands and running away. He was lucky he didn’t get caught. The old man Akita was stealing from was too stingy to pay for cameras. After that, Akita started wearing a black and green suit emblazoned with a spider symbol that, sure, he could use his quirk through but that also removed his vulnerability to being spotted and identified.

Over time, he would warp into more of a villain. His mom caught on, eventually. She sat in on his tutoring sessions frequently. Whenever his tutor was found dead after a conversation between Akita’s tutor and herself about him potentially turning him in unless he was paid extra, Akita was listening in. His mother suspected as much, and looked the other side. Akita would be lying if he said he only did it because he wanted to protect himself. As an older teen, and without his adoptive dad around, he came to appreciate his mom deeply and came to love her like he did his old mom. He’d never truly forgive her, but he realized what happened to you as a person when you married the type of man his adoptive dad was. He forgave her for allowing him to do the type of corporal punishment that was committed against him as well.

With his mother’s wealth, and allies in law enforcement and the political community, Akita was safe as long as he didn’t get caught. Becoming a mix of Peter Pan and a more homicidal Pied Piper, Akita’s people of origin and those in society left behind would come to look up to the Spider King as a sort of folk hero. He wreaked a wicked justice when needed, but often times his fans on the Internet would justify any killings they couldn’t explain as saying that the person must have deserved it. The truth was, though, Akita wasn’t a vigilante. He did what he believed was right within his own twisted morality, and that included stealing what he wanted, killing who he needed to, and taking whatever odd jobs people could hire him for.

He took all jobs, though. That was part of why he was a folk hero. If you knew the right avenue, some 12 year old kid could feasibly scrounge up enough money to get Spider King to show up and convince their bullies to leave them alone. You didn’t need much for that. Stealing emeralds or killing a hero, though? Getting rid of a witness? That took a lot more money. Thus, Spider King became something of society’s boogeyman. Within a few years of activity, it wasn’t uncommon for him to be hired to handle someone’s Internet beef, or get revenge against a person who beat up someone’s kid, or leaked pictures someone didn’t want leaked.

With this kind of smokescreen and the willingness people had to look away because they had been led to believe it was all for a greater cause and not for Akita’s own enjoyment, and with the conspiracy his mother had perpetrated, it left law enforcement frustrated as witnesses didn’t often come forward. Nonetheless, the truth is that his hatred of society’s wealthy and elite, those who were celebrities, those who had it easier than he did growing up was not only irrational, but fuel for a lot of his actions. The type of victims he had that led to people rooting for him just happened to be to his benefit, and the work he did for cheap for people as his only real charity in the world led to popularity rivaling that of some top heroes. Nonetheless, Akita is still a villain. Most of his motivations are selfish, but he is definitely looking out for the little guy when it comes to the type of work he’s willing to accept. It’s the least he can do.

He kept up the facade well. He was “Fujimori, Akita, sir!” at work to his bosses. He got a job as a photographer and reporter at his family company - a massive news media organization - after graduating college for journalism, media, and communication. His ability to stick to the sides of skyscrapers was useful, and something that let him take shots like no one else could. Plus, he was ballsy enough to get close enough to some villains to snap pics, and he never seemed to have issues snapping pics of Spider King.

Akita Fujimori might not be a household name, but his photographs? The most poignant were certainly as well known as some pro heroes. He hadn’t won a Pulitzer yet, though, so that’s his current goal for his more normal, mundane life.