NAME: Sakura Kasugano

PERSONAL DATA

Current Age: 26

Birthdate: March 15 (Pisces)

Birthplace: Aohura City, Japan

Resides in: Tokyo, Japan

Nationality: Japanese

Occupation: High School Physical Education Teacher

Height: 5’4”

Weight: 108 lbs

Likes: Cooking, working out (anything to build up a sweat), kids

Dislikes: perverts, her boss

Description:

Family: Darrell Markis (husband), Kaoru Miadama (adopted sister), Tsukushi Kasugano (younger brother), Kyone Kasugano & Ayane Kasugano (cousins), both parents still alive

Associates: Hinata Wakaba, Ran Hibiki, Karin Kanzuki, Yuri Sakazaki, Kyosuke Kagami, Batsu Ichimonji, Kei Chitose, Natsu Aihara, Ryu, Ken Masters, Chun-Li, Ace, Yun Lee, Yang Lee, Yin Lee, Dan Hibiki

FIGHTER’S DATA

Style: Imitated Ansatsuken

#of years in circuit: 12

Physical Rating: C+

Ki Rating: B

Vitality Rating: C+

Overall Rating: C+

Teammates: Darrell Markis, Hinata Wakaba, Karin Kanzuki, Kaoru Miadama, Batsu Ichimonji, Kyosuke Kagami, Ran Hibiki

Rivals: Karin Kanzuki, Kaoru Miadama, Yuri Sakazaki, Darrell Markis, Athena Asamiya

Accomplishments: Winner of the Fourth Street Fighter tournament (with win vs. Kairi)

Favorite Special Move: Shouoken (Cherry Blossom Fist)

Favorite Super Move: Yaru Zakura/Midare Zakura (Wild Cherry Blossom / Raging Cherry Blossom)

Most Powerful Move: Harugokusatsu (Spring Hell Murder)

MOVELIST

Throws

Petal Kick - F + HK when close – Sakura hops onto her opponent’s body by planting a sneaker on his/her chest and kicks off while spinning to her feet.

Sakura Jime – F + HP when close - Sakura moves to her opponent’s back and strangles them by the neck multiple times until she bashes them over the head with her elbow

Command Moves

Flower Kick – F + MK - Sakura brings her leg up and over in an overhead kick

Flower Shower – B + HK - Sakura brings her foot up into the air and brings it down in a direct overhead kick

Special Moves

Hadouken (Surge Fist) - QCF + P, hold P to charge – Sakura fires off a blue orb of energy that can be charged.  Unlike her old days, it doesn’t fizzle out, but moves slower as it gets bigger.

Soukuu Hadouken (Space Surge Fist) - QCB + P – Sakura leans back a bit while charging up her Hadouken and fires it upwards.  The move cannon be charged, though, so it makes better use for anti-air purposes.

Tengyo Hadouken ({Changing} Surge Fist)- QCP + P while in air – From the air Sakura fires her Hadouken downwards.  This attack can’t be charged, like previous, yet it makes out to be a great air combo-ender.

Shouoken (Cherry Blossom Fist) - DP + P – Sakura rushes forward and hits multiple times with her fist before launching off into the air with her arm above her for the final uppercut.  This move, unlike most of the others in her arsenal, has NOT changed during the years, so that means that those who know Sakura know about its advantages and disadvantages.  If Sakura puts a bit of her ki into it, she can generate a ki shield in front of her as she rushes that nullifies projectiles (non-hyper).

Yaezakura (Double Cherry Blossoms) - QCB + K up to two times – Sakura will go into a modified Shunpukyaku (body is more outstretched than the typical hurricane kick; think more ballerina-like) and ends with a high kick, a roundhouse kick, a sweep or a strong straight kick.  This move has mind-game protential, and serves to be a nice combo string ender as well due to its quickness.

Sakura Kyaku (Cherry Blossom Kick) - HCF + K - Sakura jumps forward a bit and delivers a strong straight kick that pushes her opponent back far.  Think about Ryu’s Joudan Sokutou Geri and that’s about it.  The move has a bit of startup and can be seen due to the low jump warning.  The kick is pretty decent, and can be canceled into the Nekketsu Hadouken.

Hanafubuki (Falling Cherry Blossoms) – QCF + K while in air - From the air, Sakura drops down with a sneaker aiming down to her opponent’s head.  Her old Oukakyaku, in a word, Sakura drops down fairly fast, and the move catches most people off guard expecting a normal attack.

Jareru Shinkirou (Playful Mirage) – HCB, F + P - Sakura gets into a counter stance, her shoulder out as she anticipates an attack.  If hit she’ll grab the arm or leg that hit and quickly move to her opponent’s back while rendering her opponent open to attack.  The counter attack is something Sakura decided to add to her arsenal, and since something like this hasn’t been seen in Ansatsuken before, it throws a LOT of fighters off.  However, it doesn’t have much priority, and, at the end of the day, it’s not as good as it intends to be.

Jareru Arashi (Playful Storm) - HCB, F + K – Sakura leans back in a defensive stance.  When hit by an attack she’ll grab the arm/leg and spin her opponent around and then counter with a strong roundhouse kick to the head.  The second, and actually, better counter attack in Sakura’s arsenal.  The counter’s priority is better than the Jareru Shinkirou, to the extent that she can stuff supers.

Super Arts

Nekketsu Hadouken (Hot Zeal Surge Fist) - QCF, QCF + P – Sakura quickly charges and fires a huge pink Hadouken at her opponent.  The stronger version of the Shinkuu Hadouken of old, the Nekketsu Hadouken has a better vertical range in which the opponent can’t jump over this attack, and its faster than any of her other attacks.  Period.  It only hits once, but the move has total clearing power over most projectile supers on the circuit.  There’s also little cooldown, so the only way an opponent can take advantage of the attack is if they’re behind Sakura at the start of the move.

Ryuusei Hadouken (Meteor Surge Fist) - QCF, QCF + P while in air – From the air, Sakura will throw a multi-hit purple Hadouken downwards.  This attack differs a bit from the Nekketsu Hadouken, since it hits more than once, yet isn’t quite as big.  The power’s also just a tiny bit less, yet it makes an ideal air combo ender.

Yaru Zakura (Wild Cherry Blossoms) - QCF, QCF + K – Sakura rushes forward very quickly.  When in range she’ll go into a wide arrange of attacks that look different and hit slower than her Midare Zakura, ending with the Shouoken and followed up a final kick to plant her opponent into the ground.  This attack does more damage than her old super as the hits are more precise, and other than that, there’s no difference between that and the old super.  It still has the priority problem, yet at random times, Sakura has autoguard during the rush.

Nihyaku Hatsuka (End of the Storm) - QCB, QCB + K – Sakura starts off with a hard kick to the chin.  If it connects, it’ll send her opponent up into the air where she’ll spring up with an aerial barrage of attacks before smashing them down with a sledgehammer blow.  The move that replaced the Haru Ichiban, Sakura replaced it so that if it misses she wouldn’t be punished for the high cooldown afterwards.  The later part of the super doesn’t connect if the initial kick doesn’t work, but that also renders her a bit at a disadvantage against airborne attackers.

Hyper Art

Haru Goku Satsu (Spring Hell Murder) - LP, LP, F, LK, HP – Tapping into her ‘sister’s’ powers, she’ll quickly turn into Sakura Satsu and warp forward.  When in range she’ll make the grab and everything will turn dark.  She’ll deliver lightning fast blows to her opponent while the darkness slowly turns to light shade.  When everything turns back to normal, Sakura’s shown back to normal brushing her hands as pink and black cherry blossoms surround her and her opponent.  This move is a grab, so its unblockable, however, its range is better since Sakura glides forward rather fast.  However, it has pretty low priority and it doesn’t take much effort to get away from the attack.

WINQUOTES

-  I’ve been fighting for a long time and it’s safe to say you’ve got a long way before beating me!

-  There’s nothing to be ashamed about.  Just practice some more and try harder next time!

-  You know, being the best isn’t as easy as it seems.  You can’t let anyone see you sweat and I like to sweat!

-  Sorry!  I might teach academics but I can’t teach you how to use your fists!

-  Don’t be so sour!  Street Fighting is its best when you’ve having fun!  Remember that!

-  Sorry, but the kids were watching.  I couldn’t let you beat me in front of a crowd!

HISTORY

Sakura Kasugano was first a very tomboy-ish and energetic schoolgirl growing up in Japan.  Not only did she act like a boy, she took most of her time beating them up.  For someone as young as her, she had a pretty aggressive nature (even to the point that no boys would want to play her in basketball on her way up to high school).  Upon reaching freshmen status in high school, two events happened that’ll forever shape her destiny over the course of her young life.  The first happened during the conclusion of the first Street Fighter tournament.  Sakura was able to watch Ryu defeat Sagat and from then on she grew to be his number one fan.  Very often she would imitate his moves for herself (obviously to an imperfect state), and often daydreamed about him (which hampered her school grades).  Second of all was during a run-in with three drunken college students after a night out at the movies with her childhood friend, Kei Chitose.  The scene would’ve turned into rape if Sakura didn’t fight them off (purely off of instinct).  Afterwards, Sakura took into a liking of the way of Street Fighting, even if she didn’t fully pick up the concept of it.

At the end of her freshman year, Sakura took a trip around the world in search of her idol, Ryu (traveling along with her now ex-sensei, Dan Hibiki).  Previously she was a student of the Saikyo style that Dan Hibiki practices.  As a matter of fact, she was the first (and almost the last, if business didn’t suddenly pick up for Dan).  During her travels she did battle with the emperor of Muai Thai, Sagat (the winner is still undecided), and Ken Masters (which she lost).  Eventually she did find and fight Ryu, and even won the match, but afterwards she feels as though he held back.  She went back home with a photograph of him, thinking of when she’ll meet him again.

Upon arriving back to Japan, school was back in session and she was a sophomore.  By this time, however, her skills as a Street Fighter were going to be needed.  With the opening of a new high school named Justice High, soon students from other high schools started to disappear without a trace.  With the police not able to do a thing and parents baffled and frightened, it was up to the brave group of students remaining from high school over Tokyo and Aohura City go on and find out who was responsible.  Siding along with friends Hinata Wabaka from Taiyo High and Natsu Aihara from Gorin High, Sakura went on about her investigation of the matter, but to little success.... that is, until one day she saw a bunch of Justice High students ganging up on one middle school student.  Startled by the sudden change of pace, Sakura watched in wait as the kid, who was a foreign exchange student from the United States, tried desperately to defend himself, but once weapons were introduced, he was quickly overwhelmed.  Sakura, who was with Hinata at the time, decided enough was enough and jumped in to end the quarrel.  Taking him to the hospital, it was there Sakura officially met the boy that her life would be tied with, Darrell Markis.

Afterwards, Sakura had enough proof to start a rundown on the prestigious Justice High, but she needed to wait until the other fighters from the students got the word.  A few weeks later, the remaining students finally led their battle against Justice, United by Fate.  Sakura partnered with Hinata, Batsu Ichimonji and Kyosuke Kagami as they fought some of the brainwashed students and made their way to the Principal, who revealed himself to be Batsu’s father, Raizo Imawano.  After the battle, however, things weren’t done.  Raizo wasn’t the man behind it, but rather, Kyosuke’s twin brother, Hyo Iwamano.  It quickly became a race against time to find the madman before he could lead the Justice High ‘army’ into taking over Japan, but upon finding him, were shocked to see Darrell out and already doing battle with the sword-wielding brother of Kyosuke.  After a long, uphill battle with the much more experienced swordsman, Darrell caught his lucky break before he collapsed; a high powered burst of fire mixed with Hadou energy out of nowhere, damaging Hyo enough to be taken down by Kyosuke & Batsu.

After Project Justice was over with and the school year ended, Darrell went back to the States, but not without saying goodbye to Sakura and Hinata for helping him.  He also made Sakura a promise that he’ll return stronger than he was.  Sakura agreed and watched him go.  Also, during the latter end of the school year, Sakura met and made rivals/friends with Karin Kanzuki, a student at a private high school located in the wealthier part of Tokyo.  To this day, their partnership is still undergoing.

During that summer, Sakura took part of the Mark of the Millennium tournament along with partners Yuri Sakazaki and Athena Asamiya.  Before hand, back to when she was a student of the Saikyo dojo, Sakura and Yuri met and were fierce rivals, even though none of the fights grew to be nothing more but rivalries between schools.  Together, the three did fairly well in the tournament (they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Ken Masters and Terry Bogard) and the three made themselves close friends.  However, after the tournament, things were pretty watered down.  It wasn’t until she was reunited with Darrell a few weeks later that her life really picked up.

It was at this time that Shadowloo, an underground crime syndicate spread the world over, had their sites set on strong, young Street Fighters in order to use them for their own benefit.  After attacking Kei as bait, Sakura, Darrell and Hinata found themselves wrapped up in a predicament dealing with Shadowloo.  They were even kidnapped and very close to having their own vigor drained for the head of the organization.  However, they were able to break free from the clutches and came face to face with M. Bison, the leader of Shadowloo.  As Hinata became the victim of a one-sided fight, Sakura started to change.  Out of nowhere she viciously attacked Bison, and it was then that Bison mentioned “Dark Hadou” to her for the first time.  The statement threw Sakura off and she grew confused about her own power.  Searching for answers, Sakura, along with Hinata and Darrell, traveled the world in search for the only one who could understand her troubles, Ryu.

Along the way, the trio met up with the likes of the then Twin Dragons, Yun and Yang Lee, Sagat once again, and then Ken Masters and Sean Matsuda, but also they ran into Bison once again (through methods of Cammy White, who was under Shadowloo control).  However, during all this, little did she know that she was developing certain feelings towards Darrell.  The small bond they had served much important to the Bison meeting, as Bison fully brought out Sakura’s dark side by striking Darrell numerous times.  The Dark Sakura (aka Sakura Satsu), made quick work of M. Bison and afterwards split from the original Sakura.  For the next few years up to the Street Fighter 4 tournament, Sakura Satsu was free to roam the world on her own will, although sticking close to her ‘sister’.

Sakura Satsu proved to be the attraction to another fighter by the name of Akuma, the Master of Fists and sole master to the Satsu no Hadou (Surge of Murderous Intent).  In a ‘mock’ fight Akuma made his presence known to the four young travelers, and challenged them to show their real power in the fight for their life.  Even though Sakura did train for the fight, she never took place in it (in contrast to what Akuma previously mentioned to them).  However, it wasn’t the last of her seeing the Master of Fists.

Just before her junior year started the Turn of the Century tournament went underway, hosted by Ken Masters and Robert Garcia.  Sakura Kasugano, Sakura Satsu, Darrell, and Hinata took place in the team portion of the tournament and went throughout most of it undefeated, losing only twice.  However, the two losses hampered their chances to making it to the final battles.  As the Finals went underway, Sakura wasn’t done battling.  Darrell, who had abandoned the team after his loss in the latter battle, was battling Akuma (turned Shin Akuma) by himself, and if it weren’t for the bond that Sakura shared with him, she wouldn’t have known.  Earlier the psychic Rose appeared to her and Darrell in a dream sequence when their desires were at their peak and revealed their destiny to one another.  Sakura, using that knowledge, managed to come and assist just before Darrell could be finished off, and together, she and Darrell managed to defeat Akuma once and for all with the aid of a new move that Sakura was tampering with in secret for the finals, the Nekketsu Hadouken.

This wasn’t the end of it.  As Rose foretold, another man of three stood in their way of peace.  Although the battle was quick and ended in defeat against Rugal Bernstein, help managed to make itself known to her and Darrell to finish off Rugal.  Upon the conclusion of the Rugal battle, the third made his presence known in the form of Gill.  The battle against the then misguided ‘savior’ was stripped from Sakura’s memory, however, but some of the events still remained in her mind, most importantly the fact and declaration that she and Darrell loved each other.  Sakura returned to her daily school basis with a boyfriend.

Junior year went by very quickly to Sakura, since nothing out of the ordinary commenced during that time.  However, things picked up senior year in a confusing string of events that stemmed from a robbery in which Sakura tried to break up.  The robbers were students of Tengo High, a rival school to Sakura’s, Tamagawa Minami.  Uriko Naiko and Rei Shuu, the robbers, first appeared to be the new bad guys, but however, Sakura’s dark sister managed to put things in perspective.  As things would put it, Uriko was being held against her will to steal for a man who kidnapped her family.  As he came to personally handle some discipline, a new student, Mitsukake, started to make his presence known as Sakura’s protector... and much to Darrell’s dislike, Sakura was growing attracted to him while seemingly neglecting him.  To a point, it was the case, but it wasn’t until Darrell went missing when Sakura had to put Mitsukake aside to help out her true boyfriend.  After having no choice but to fight her brainwashed boyfriend, only to wind up beaten, Sakura was later assisted by Uriko, who put Darrell and the man who held her chains for so long in perspective.

A few years passed after Sakura graduated and started to attend college.  During that time, she married Darrell and settled in a house that her rival/friend, Karin Kanzuki, constructed just for her for a present.  Late one night, she awoke to find her husband in shock.  She and her “sister” later found out that Darrell had a twin “Satsu” brother just like her, only he seemed to have a conscience.  Sakura eventually led them to the place where she heard of the Satsu no Hadou to begin with to uncover the truth, but while leaving they were confronted with a girl who seemed to have that same essence.  As Sakura Satsu fought her to submission, the mysterious girl revealed herself to be Kaoru Miadama, a “cursed” girl from birth with the Satsu no Hadou energy.  Showing compassion for her, Sakura and Darrell allowed her to stay with them, however, that arrangement was interrupted as they were ambushed, along with their friend, Hinata, and captured by the once-thought-dead Shadowloo.

As it turned out, Bison was “revived” after the last altercation, and now set his sights on controlling the world through brainwashing, starting with the group.  For a period of over a month, Sakura, Darrell, Kaoru, and Hinata were the ones responsible for the extermination of Interpol’s main base, the murder of Geese Howard, and other international crimes.  It wasn’t until a team made up of Ryu, Ken Masters, Karin Kanzuki, Charlie Nash, and Chun-Li Xiang managed to defeat them that they returned to normal.

Quickly a plan was made for revenge, consisting of Ryu pretending to be captured by the ex-Shadowloo soldiers to gain access to the hidden stronghold.  Meanwhile, Chun-Li, Ken, and Charlie would sneak in after them and find out what was going on while Karin tracked things from the Kanzuki Zaibatsu.  Ultimately the plan backfired and while Chun-Li’s group had to fight off hoards of Shadowloo soldiers, Ryu’s team was being drained of their energy.  Eventually, Darrell’s “evil” side came and broke them free of the control, killing Bison in the process.

A few months passed and Ken Masters announced the Street Fighter 4 tournament.  Sakura attended the tourney, fixing on doing her best and to see where she stood in the world against the best World Warriors.  However, from the door she could tell things weren’t going to be easy.  Despite the fact that Ryu was conspicuously absent from the tournament, a new fighter named “Kairi” made it loud and clear that his focus was on her and Darrell.  Keeping that in mind, Sakura steadily made her way through the tournament, having to fight against her sister in the semi-finals of her division and then her husband, Darrell, at the finals for the division.  She beat them both in order to fight against Kairi in the finals, who left his opponents in the dust and in critical condition all within a period of 5 minutes.  Before the fight, Sakura Satsu scouted Kairi while he was undergoing meditation, and she was convinced her original was not going to have the power to win... unless the two once again became one and combined their energies for the final round.  Although reluctant, Sakura eventually agreed, saying goodbye to her “twin sister” as the two became one once again.

The final bout was a physically tiring bout for Sakura, who never imagined her opponent to be as strong as he was.  However, she kept the fight as tight as she could.  The battle was intense... until the moment Kairi found himself growing mad with the evil energy within him.  Sensing a huge power build into a single attack, Sakura quickly pulled out her trump card, the Nekketsu Hadouken.  Her attack met Kairi’s ultimate beam attack with tremendous force, and it took all she had for her attack to overpower Kairi’s.  Kairi was hit, but as the smoke cleared he was nowhere to be found at all, the blast totally thrashing half of the Tokyo Dome where the fight was held.  With that, Sakura was crowned the winner of Street Fighter 4.

From that shocking win, Sakura continued training, trying out new moves and new techniques, all while starting a career as a high school gym teacher at her old Tamagawa Minami school.  It has been 3 years since the ending of Street Fighter 4... and Sakura’s lively adventures are nowhere near finished...

PERSONALITY

Sakura is normally very cheerful and friendly.  Although she lost a little bit of her aggressive nature from her early, early days, she can really take it to her opponent in a fight.  Sakura doesn’t necessarily fight to win or lose, but she makes the most out of having a better opponent or equal opponent of her level, fighting mostly for the fun and excitement of it all.  Unlike other people, being the current Street Fighter hasn’t gone to her head, however, it does sort of hamper her job situation a bit.  Since she is so popular, she can at times let all the attention her students give her get to her. 

Another trait about Sakura is how at times she can... not quite act her age.  She has a bit of a naive complex to her and can at times act a bit childish.  However, overall Sakura is very fun to be around for friends and strangers alike.  Just don’t get her very angry.  She did “absorb” her darker side, after all...