Azucena Guerra

Azucena Guerra or Azu for short, also known as Higabana (彼岸花) to various groups in Japantown is a former Cyber MMA fighter currently working as a Solo.

Early Life
Azu was born and raised in Heywood and had a relatively modest and happy home life despite their financial struggles. She was friendly with the neighborhood and even among some of the local gang members (who her mother advised her not too hang around). She received a worldly tutoring on various subjects from her father who was a former nomad turned delivery driver and life lessons from her mother, whose mother was a former member of the yakuza.

Her happy-go-lucky demeanor changed one day however when she got into an accident with a cyberpsycho at the age of 12, crippling and mortally wounding her. Her mother, who was a clinical assistant to a ripperdoc, had rushed her immediately to a hospital where her condition was stabilized. The resulting diagnosis was a loss of her right arm, severe fractures and nerve damage in her left arm and complete paralysis from the waist down.

After she was discharged, her mother immediately brought Azu to her boss where he performed full cyberlimb replacements for all her limbs several internal augmentations. It took her awhile to adjust as she went through several stages of depression and PTSD but when she was pulled out of her rut, she was ready to take on the world.

When she was 13, she started attending a dojo in Westbrook run by Hajime, a relative of her maternal grandmother. He mainly taught her judo and aikido but also some basic kenjutsu. She had also learned some special techniques designed specifically with cyberlimbs from his son Kazuma who was also cyberdized.

Street Brawling Beginnings
By the age of 16, Azu was already participating in underground fighting rings, unbeknownst to her parents who thought she was training too hard. Despite their concerns, Azu felt a strong need to help repay the debt accumulated by her parents for her medical fees, some of which were waived by her mom's boss, though that didn't include the hospitalization fees.

Soon enough, she was let into the "official" matches and quickly rose through the ranks from neighborhood fights to inter-district matches and eventually she was Heywood's top fighter. During her match with Westbrook's top fighter, she garnered the attention of a talent scout for Night City's Cyber MMA league. He offered her deal she couldn't refuse and so, she left the street fighting scene.

MMA Champion League
Azu's days were mostly spent training, jogging, exercising and fighting at a local gym where she received tutelage from various other fighters and veterans in Muay Thai and kickboxin. She spent less and less at time at home where her parents, who were although worried, were happy that she could finally apply herself in a career that she enjoyed, with rules of course. She was 18 when she entered her first organized fight and despite all her talents and training, only narrowly won the match. This spurred her to train harder and harder for subsequent matches.

Azu steadily rose through the tiers once again and was making bank. Eventually, she had surpassed the goal of repaying her parent's debts and was supplying them with more money then their income. Questioning her reason for still fighting, she arrived at the conclusion that she simply loved fighting. At this rate, she was sure to represent Heywood in the Intercity Championship. Tragedy struck before she could make it to the big leagues however. The leader of an up and coming poser gang in Westbrook who was part of a betting ring offered a great deal of money to her to throw the next match. Azu, who was no longer in it for the money, turned him down. The amateur gang leader, rather than take a hostage, gunned down her mother and threatened to do the same to her father.

She promptly announced her withdrawal from the league the following day much to the despair and confusion of her fans and colleagues. When night came however, Azu and her father had led a combined force of her neighborhood gang and both sides of her mother's family into the gang's territory. The entire gang was exterminated overnight and Azu earned the name Higabana after the all the death she inflicted and the patterns of blood found on her arms, her clothes and all along the walls and floors of the scene.

Azu knew that she could not longer stay in Night City. Whether it be the police, another gang or a corpo extraction squad, someone would be after her. Her father offered to take her to his nomad family, saying that they'd be gladly welcome.￼ She declined however, and said that she needed to go her own way, and so the two parted ways, leaving the city behind.

Solo Career
Azu travelled all over the world from Japan to Tibet to Russia. She went on many adventures, working with and for various organizations, fighting alongside and against some of the best solos in Europe, learning from various teachers and even losing her memory and gaining it back.￼

Return to Night City
In 2076, Azu had returned to the city for some unfinished business.

Skills and Abilities
Azu has a total of four combat-rated cybernetic limbs that replaces each of her arms and legs. She also has several internal structural upgrades to her body including optical scanners, reflex enhancers and skin weaves. Azu is a highly skilled practitioner of martial arts, namely judo, aikido, Muay Thai, kickboxing along with several other forms of martial arts and brawling styles. Along with that, she also is also knowledgeable in several kenjutsu sword forms. She is also trilingual, speaking English, Spanish and Japanese. Aside from her body and mental aptitudes, she is an accomplished fighter with great judgment and self-control.

She is proficient in the usage of rifles and handguns though isn't a marksman by any means. She also has moderate hacking and netrunning abilities. Even if she's a force to be reckoned with, Azu isn't invincible and can be scarcely outmatched in different outcomes. Due to her versatile and balanced skillset and cybernetics, she can face difficulty facing more specialized cyborgs that are simply much stronger, much faster or better netrunners than she is.