Norio Akuhara

Norio Akuhara is a Buddhist scholar and an important member of the Tyger Claws who was close to the gang's deceased boss Sota Saito. He was attempting to earn enough money to leave Night City with his partner Julia Lee, prior to suffering cyberpsychosis as a reaction to her murder.

Biography
Norio, also nicknamed Akki, for single-handedly disposing of a large number of Tyger Claws, started out as an experienced fighter following the ideology of Sota. His meditative approach to fighting had made him a formidable, unpredictable opponent, so it was not difficult for him to join a gang once he wished to do so. He examined and evaluated his bosses in fights, letting them deal with enemies alone to prove themselves and validate his decision to work for them. Never feeling kinship with the gang, he solely used them as a manner of boosting his finances to achieve a single goal, although, very quickly, he became aware that leaving their environment might prove a lot more difficult than he anticipated. He meditated and worked on his zen to provide a better understanding of the situation, and near the dread he was about to suffer, he even noted how his insight became much better and stronger.

Soon after Sota's death, Julia was murdered by the Tyger Claws, who claimed it was an "accident". Norio began suffering blackouts and gaps in his memory. He sought treatment from Dr. Colin Thevaniz, who prescribed him some medication the alleviated the symptoms. However, eventually the medicine started to lose effectiveness and he stopped taking them all together. His mental state completely collapsed.

During his blackout episodes, he had decided to "test" the gang using "sakki", or "Air of Murdered", to see if they could sense the danger of his lethal intent and strike him down before he would do the same. None passed the test. He managed to quickly dispose of gang members in the most brutal ways, without even being seen. This has claimed the minds of some of the survivors that have started insisting how an actual demon was descending upon them.

The stories of the supernatural do not deceive the regional fixer Regina Jones, who manages to recognise the signs of cyberpsychosis in the remains of his actions, so she contracts V to deal with the situation and retrieve Norio alive for further studies of the illness if possible.

Just prior to facing V, Norio will be caught dealing with several Tyger Claws, presumedly the ones who had murdered Julia, in a corridor under renovation, utilising the construction framing to achieve advantage in stealth. Despite suffering mental disturbances, he will not immediately attack V, who doesn't belong to his hit list. Instead he will warn V to leave, and then attempt running away.

The evacuation failed due to an organised ambush at the exit of the passage, so Norio had to deal with multiple gang members at the same time, without the practice of his methods or stealth. V must thread carefully here while fighting the Tyger Claws, since if Norio suffers too much damage, it may not be possible to take him in alive.

Finally, upon being pacified, Regina will bring up a piece of V's message on not giving into the "air of murder" and explain it by paraphrasing Erich Fromm's book "Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis" - if someone masters their art of fighting, they'd be able to sense danger before it arrives. Unfortunately for the Tyger Claws, they were not that skilled to begin with and suffered accordingly.

Associated Quests

 * Cyberpsycho Sighting: Phantom of Night City

Shards

 * Archived Conversation: Julia Lee and Norio Akuhara

Trivia

 * In Theravada, a major branch of Buddhism, Sota means flowing water or water of river or stream.
 * "Akki" translated in this case stands for "evil spirit" (悪霊).
 * Norio Akuhara's story bears a heavy resemblance to the story of Spike from Cowboy Bebop. He also shares his first name with the Japanese voice actor for Vicious.