Bishie-Dan App: Heartless Police Bum

My application for
I've been working on this guy for a long time and finally got his reference lined and colored.
I also did all the art on the trial version of Sai.

Name: Sho Saburo
Age: 27
Height: 174 cm
Occupation: Police Officer- recently transferred homicide division detective.
Hair: Lime
Eyes: Gold
Extra: Piercings

Personality: One word to describe Sho would be 'heartless.' He's cold, unfeeling and immovable in his everyday life. Don't let that fool you into thinking he's cruel; Sho has a steadfast belief in right, wrong and justice. He simply doesn't allow himself to feel. With a hardened heart and his faith in only facts, he'll do whatever it takes to find the truth. Blackmail and threats are not above him, though he would never turn crooked or falsify evidence. He's independent and better left to his own devices, as he frightens off potential partners with his work ethic and violent tendencies.

Quick to act on his instincts, Sho doesn't have a qualm with busting up a few criminals to get a confession or getting into fistfights with jerks on the street, though he stays cold and emotionless throughout. He has neither passion nor empathy, and is not the one to turn to for advice or venting out problems; he'll respond with a kick to the rear and a 'get over it' more likely than not. He's quiet and calculating when there's nothing important to be said, and quantifies work, friendship and investment in relationships to decide how they'll benefit his cause overall.

During extensive investigations he subsists on a diet of coffee and cigarettes, and though his car and trash bin are full of fast food wrappers, he's a decent cook. Out of habit he makes taiyaki every Sunday, though he seems to do so robotically and would only shrug wordlessly if asked why he continues to do so.  Overall he's considered a stoic workaholic by his superiors, and peers are usually torn between finding his lone wolf attitude inspiring and thinking he's just some cocky jerk who thinks he's above kindness.

In truth he lost the desire to be accepted and perceived as kind, blindly moving toward his goal of justice with a narrowed field of vision. He's lost most of his former friends by shutting them out, and he hasn't made it easy to meet new ones. Sho isn't opposed to contacting others, but if he feels it's a waste of time he will proclaim it with little concern for the feelings of the person he's speaking with. To him, the tormented memories of a victim are just more paperwork to be filled out before he can pummel and arrest the guy who created them. Nothing can rouse his hatred quite like a nice pile of forms in the way of his self-appointed duty; even if you're a blithering idiot whose presence is the equivalent of being hit over the head repeatedly with a large stick, he will tolerate you over paperwork.

Sho has no sense of romance after what happened four years ago, and while he's humored his mother's matchmaking dates has not pursued or held a relationship since. Usually people veer away from his brashness enough that he doesn't become endeared to them, and it doesn't help that to the police officer love is simply a science he doesn't wish to study. Still, if someone persistently annoyed him enough to grow on him, he wouldn't know what to do except make them useful for work and reassure them that he can't care about them properly until he's taken care of his personal case, if then.

Sho is known to work himself to the bone to get a lengthy case put behind him, and often gets sick from malnutrition or dehydration because he just doesn't bother eating when something's on his mind. His favorite food used to be taiyaki, and while he still eats them, their flavor is lost on him. Food is a distraction that can be replaced by vitamin supplements in his mind, though if he goes more than 3 days without any food weakness is even worse for his focus. Even while he's eating semi-regularly (a meal or two daily while not swamped) and relatively destressed, when his personal case gets to him Sho suffers from migraines and blackouts. Nowadays when his head starts to feel tight he heads somewhere he can be undisturbed and listens to calming music, but he still has a tendency to overexert himself and be a pain toward anyone who learns to care about his grumpy butt.

Likes:
+ Black Coffee
+ Cigarettes
+ Quick, simple meals
+ Making Arrests
+ Fighting/physical activity to let out his tension

Dislikes:
- Questions about his wedding ring (he wears it on a chain under his shirt when he's working)
- Comments on the dangers of smoking
- Self-righteous criminals
- People in general
- Waiting for food at restaurants

History: At a young age, Sho was an academic underachiever. It wasn't that he was slow to understand; he actually learned to read at 3 and grasped most concepts quickly. He was, however, incapable of multitasking or having interest in more than a single subject. Everything was quantified and he didn't have friends either. For a few years his parents were convinced he had ADHD and with a narrow set of symptoms he was easily (and wrongly) diagnosed and prescribed ritalin. The stimulant only jumpstarted activity in his addled mind, and when he failed fifth grade it was clear that medication wasn't bringing the focus it should.

Throughout middle school, Saburo buckled down in two of his core classes and managed to scrape by with a 2.8 gpa, though his heart was in puzzle and problem solving, not earth science or history. Despite his poor grades and years of impulsive and habitual misbehavior, he was placed into the gifted student program for his IQ test scores; tests were always his strong suit- no hours of studying or worksheets could hold his attention, but get a fact engrained in his mind and he'll be able to recall it for any number of exams. He often tapped and cracked his fingers or rolled marbles in his hand while he worked, fueling his focus with subconscious motion. His interest in puzzles, logic and mysteries grew, and he entertained the idea of writing a novel. However, he hardly made a start on any one idea before something else caught his interest. He maintained this inconsistent interest throughout a rocky patch in the marriage of his parents. When he was 13, the pair split up, leaving his father a sobbing drunk after his mother abandoned the home. The man maintained a low-level employment, but he was never the same content man as when he'd been married.

As a freshman Sho applied for forensic science class, but his heart wasn't in the lab. He tried each music course the high school offered, even attempting musical theater, but his mind was neither creatively inclined nor ready to commit to one passion. In orchestra he met Natsumi, a goofy cellist who liked to clip different colored extensions in her hair. Where he was distracted, she had real devotion, and they balanced each other out well enough that even when Sho quit the music program to try computer programming (which didn't work out) they remained friends.

A school dance came around junior year that Natsumi was psyched to attend. Seeing how excited she was that the orchestra would be playing the event, Sho decided it might not be so bad and asked permission to escort her. There he admitted to having feelings for her, but despite the orchestra's performance the dance itself was the same as every high school gathering- too loud and crowded for Sho's taste and devoid of real fun. Though the party was a bust, Sho and Natsumi became a couple afterward and stayed together through graduation. With a raised gpa and renewed interest in mysteries after electives failed to captivate him, Sho focused on getting in shape over the Summer and enrolled in a local college. Natsumi was going to a performing arts university on a music scholarship, but the two remained in a relationship.

The couple moved in together after Sho received his associate's degree; at this point his father was placed in rehabilitation for his alcoholism and the house was repossessed after the man spent a year unemployed, so the move was both a testament to the two and necessary for their budget. They settled into a cozy routine; during the week they attended classes and work, and on Sundays Sho would make taiyaki in a mold pan his grandmother had gifted him and spend the day watching tv or playing board games with Natsumi. After a little over a year, a daughter was born whom they named Chiyo. Sho's father congratulated them, but was little in the way of a grandfather, while Natsumi's parents fawned over their granddaughter. The new parents agreed that it was time to get married; Sho had been planning to propose weeks before the baby's due date, but a pregnancy scare later she was born early and his plans were forgotten. Fatherhood scared the collegiate young man- he'd never had such an immense responsibility before, nor had most of his projects been a success. Still, he was determined to stay with Natsumi, the only constant in his life while his career would be something new every day. He proposed the day his in-laws came to their home to visit for Christmas.

Chiyo's first birthday came, followed by Sho and Natsumi's wedding and soon after Sho's graduation and receipt of his bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice. He'd been moonlighting at a police academy for months, and with Natsumi playing at venues across the country he more often than not had to leave his daughter in the care of his in-laws. He was given a job working as a police officer in his prefecture when there was no opening to hire a detective, but he considered it a resume builder to get field experience. Sho had never really been empathetic, and in his work it proved a somewhat risky asset. Nearly suspended for provoking and beating his suspects on several occasions, the tenderfoot officer didn't bother to heed the warnings of his superiors. His methods, while unorthodox and often dangerous, were effective, and he made twelve arrests in his first two months.

Summer came, and Natsumi returned home from her tour with the university orchestra. Chiyo, now a chubby, bright 1 year old, was thrilled to have her mother to spend time with, and while Natsumi was on break she stayed home with the baby during her husband's work hours. In the midst of a serial arson investigation, Sho was taking his work home with him, missing meals and losing sleep. Always a bit distant, he never explained why he was troubled, even when his irritability was obvious. While Natsumi respected his hesitance, she insisted that around Chiyo he should continue to act as though nothing was wrong.

One late night, Sho was making a run to the scene of a domestic disturbance outside of town when he received the call that cut short his happiness; there had been a home invasion at his address, and by the time an ambulance and squad car had arrived Natsumi was unresponsive. He sped back to his home, listening to his radio for any news. It was bad- the house had been ransacked, and no one was to be seen when police arrived. By some miracle, Chiyo was discovered unharmed in her crib, but Natsumi, found in the hall outside the baby's room, had been stabbed in the abdomen and left to bleed. By the time Sho reached the hospital, she'd passed.

For the first few months, Sho couldn't be separated from his daughter. He attended his wife's funeral on a sunny afternoon and spent every minute with Chiyo in his sight. He'd been staying with his in-laws while police completed their investigation at the house, and while they respected his grief, he knew they blamed him for the death of their daughter. He'd already turned the same guilt on himself after his rage and panic had subsided. The only things that had disappeared after that night were papers and an evidence bag from his desk- all related to his serial arson case. He was nearly dismissed from his job on indefinite trauma leave, but eventually he made his way back to the station, fueled by hate, determination and guilt.

After three years where he hardly slept, spent long hours investigating his own case, ignored paperwork, former friends and his health and generally shut everything else out, Sho was expelled from the home of his in-laws. Custody of Chiyo was contested and eventually given to the more stable home; his blackouts had become frequent and even when he wasn't away at work all day he could barely take care of himself, let alone another human being.

When a lead related to his case cropped up in another city, Sho applied immediately for all open positions in and around the area; he was given transfer recently at his current rank, and while he vowed justice for Natsumi's death and promised to become a man worthy of parenthood, he has since been sidetracked by work and throws himself once again into every investigation. Chiyo is now five, and remains the only person that Detective Saburo still holds emotion for.