Shio Sakaki (逆鬼 至緒 Sakaki Shio) is infamously known as the 100-Dan Street Brawler of Karate and is one of the masters of Ryozanpaku and the 4th oldest master of the Ryozanpaku.
Appearance[]
Sakaki is a tall and largely muscled, tan-skinned man. He has short eggplant-colored hair with a longer strand hanging over his face. Since his late-teen years, he has had a long scar that runs horizontally across the bridge of his nose. A recurring theme with Sakaki's appearances is that he tends to come off as threatening and scary even when not intending to. He is almost always seen shirtless while wearing a brown leather jacket and blue jeans with bandages wrapped around his forearms.
In his youth, Sakaki's hair was slightly shorter and didn't have his scar across his nose. He wore a similar outfit that he does now only the jacket he wore was zipped up. When he is training Kenichi, he almost always seen wearing a traditional karate Gi outfit.
He has a habit of destroying the clothing on his upper body with his muscles when angered.
Personality[]
Sakaki is arrogant, violent, and a drunkard, but is quite possibly the most normal of the masters at Ryozanpaku. Sakaki is a very intimidating person even when he tries not to be, something that he doesn't seem to realize and is put off by whenever someone points it out. This persona belies a kind and somewhat caring nature which he tries (and fails miserably) to hide, though he is somewhat hot-blooded and short-tempered. To this end, he could be seen as a bad liar, pointed out by Kenichi at one point when Sakaki tells him to lie about the money he received from the underground fighting tournament. Amusingly, it is shown that he suffers from stage fright and becomes extremely flustered at being the center of attention, such as when he was posing as Miu's father during a parent-teacher interview and when he was forced to train little children. He's not very good when it comes to children, as due to his intimidating nature, he caused them to cry. However, when he tried again, he at least managed to warm up to them eventually and remember all their names and they all liked him a lot.
However, out of all the masters, he is the nicest when training Kenichi. He's usually the only one who worries over Kenichi's condition in a fight or when he's left alone. Though is usually hard and indifferent towards him, it is because he cares for him and needs to be hard on him in order to push him. Sakaki also tends to be impressed whenever Kenichi impresses him and makes a remark by rubbing his finger under his nose whenever he's moved by his actions, often wondering when he became such a man. After Kenichi nearly died trying to protect Freya and her grandfather from a master class fighter, Sakaki while praising his actions in secret along with the other masters, was seen crying tears of joy at Kenichi's progress.
At first, he was strongly against taking a disciple but eventually warms up to Kenichi and shows much more concern for him than the others, being one of the few to be willing to help out Kenichi when he is in danger despite Ryozanpaku's rule that prohibits a master from involving themselves in their disciples' battles. He also gambles and drinks frequently and often places bets on Kenichi. It is shown during Boris's invasion of Ryozanpaku that when Kenichi is not around, his mood becomes worse and that he hates being bothered.
He tends to get embarrassed by trivial things such as when Kenichi calls him sensei (even though it was Sakaki who told him to address him as such). His laughing is considered to be life-threatening by Kenichi, who imitated Sakaki during the second battle with Ryuto. Apachai noticed that their laughs are almost the same, to which an embarrassed Sakaki tried to deny.
He, like the other masters, can be quite childish at times and tends to get into trivial arguments with others (especially Apachai). Like the other masters, Sakaki is devoted to the Katsujinken, despite having been raised by a Satsujinken master. Most of this is due to his personal doubt of the Satsujinken, which persisted throughout his teenage life and reached a new high when he was provoked by Suzuki's death at Hongo's hand.
A running gag is that Sakaki is the closest to being 'evil' out of Kenichi's masters. During a battle, Miu once sensed his ki and immediately assumed him to be an enemy from Yami, possibly due to his angry and somewhat violent nature. Also, for several times during their first meetings, Kenichi feared Sakaki the most, thinking he was the most dangerous and violent (not yet knowing his true personality). Another instance was that during Kushinada's appearance, Sakaki began fighting against her. At the start of this, he exclaimed in joy that he would kidnap her and give her as a present to the Elder (knowing of the small history they shared). Kenichi himself mentally noted that this was exactly the kind of line a 'bad guy' would say. Another example of this was when he followed Rahman and Jenazad in the helicopter and claimed he is not interested in learning the names of "villains" while he himself was sporting a very demonic face.
Skills[]
Sakaki has consistently demonstrated throughout the series to be a highly powerful fighter. He is so well-versed in several styles of Karate and their respective techniques that he can easily fight in seemingly any battle situation, having shown great proficiency in various punches, jabs, chops, counters and kicks. Sakaki has used his knowledge to train Kenichi to become better adjusted the various battle situations he can face. While Dou-Type with great destructive force, Sakaki has shown repeatedly in battle to easily maintain his composure in any situation and can carefully observe his opponent's attack patterns similar to a Sei-Type.
- Master Karateka: Sakaki is considered to be one of the greatest karate masters in the world, rivaled only by Akira Hongo. Even against other master-class opponents, he has been able to defeat his opponent without much effort. Sakaki was originally very offensive in his fighting style that it sometimes makes him too vulnerable before Suzuki suggested that he changed it into a defensive oriented one which he now uses as his primary form of Karate. When fighting full-out, he has repeatedly been held back by his companions as he quickly overwhelms his opponents to the point that they could die. The best example of his overall prowess was shown from his brief struggles with Sehrul Rahman and Silcardo Jenazad, both members of Yami's One Shadow Nine Fists, the latter of whom was able to give Hayato Furinji a tough fight. As a result of the brief fight, Silcardo was so impressed with Sakaki's skills that he actively seeks a battle to the death with him.
- Highly Perceptive Combatant: While usually coming off as dense, Sakaki has repeatedly shown himself to be very insightful and knowledgeable in battle. His advanced skill and knowledge in multiple forms of Karate can determine the basic nature of a person's Karate-style from a simple explanation of their stance. In battle himself, he can quickly determine the opponent's battle tactics and instinctively use an appropriate counter method. In his travels around the world, Shio has also become fluent in the basics of various languages.
- Immense Strength: Befitting his large and well-defined build, Sakaki possesses raw strength that at times appear inhuman. With just a simple finger-flick, he can easily launch Kenichi across the room during training. His punches are able to easily plow through solid surfaces or launch a man almost twice his size a considerable distance. With a single hand he can nonchalantly move large and heavy objects out of the way. He can also jump considerable distances, regularly jumping from rooftop to rooftop to get to a destination. In his youth he stopped and lifted an entire car.
- Immense Speed: Despite his size, he has been noted to be deceptively fast and agile, able to dodge and maneuver against close-range attacks with surprising balance and efficiency. He is also able to easily outrun speeding vehicles. His strikes in battle are also shown to be fast and relentless, able to launch a large barrage in an instant, leaving little time for his opponent to counter. He has such speed than sometimes when battling normal people can't keep up even when they are used to Master level battles and have seen them before and are only able to actually see what is going on by using the Inner eye. Despite being used to the speed and movements of a master even Miu lost the ability to see Sakaki and Hongo's fight clearly due to the immense speed in which they battled.
- Immense Durability: Sakaki has conditioned himself to the point that he can endure blunt force trauma that would render most people unconscious or crippled with only minor damage, most evident from the fact that he can survive a fall from one of the top floors of a tall building without any noticeable injury. So far, the only injuries he has received to visibly draw blood has small to medium scratches on his arm and torso from the hands of a skilled weapon-user. Even then, he was able to continue carrying himself and fighting seemingly unaffected. His tough conditioning has also been made of use regularly at home, as he would use his hands for various chores like punching down nails. It has reached the point that he insisted not to be used as a tool. He is also remarkably resilient mentally as well. During the fight against Sehrul, he states that Shigure's sleep talking is much scarier than the technique of Sehrul which could knock-out several people. This is why it didn't affect him, and it might be implied that Shigure's sleepwalk is one of the only things the fearless master is scared of.
- Immense Dou Ki: Even when not attempting to appear as such, Sakaki naturally gives off a highly intimidating aura when just slightly worked Dou Ki up. His ki has been shown strong enough to completely disintegrate the shirt and jacket he was wearing. With a single glare, he can knock a full-grown man off his feet and out cold and even do the same to a large group of people at once. Even when battle-worn and injured, his ki has been shown very strong and large, as Miu sensed it from far away and still considered it stronger than any other she ever sensed by far. His Ki is powerful enough that it matches Hongo's when fully released and to such an extent that it creates a destructive force as a result of the clash between Ki, even people with a relatively strong heart can't handle it and must flee the area. During his battle with Hongo both Kenichi and Miu said their released Ki was like nothing they have felt before.
- Bilingual: As Sakaki has lived in the US and worked for the FBI, he is able to speak English fluently.