Iwao Akatsuki

Iwao Akatsuki (暁巌) is a fictional character in the manga series Spriggan created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryōji Minagawa. An operative working for the Trident Corporation, he is one of the known bearers of the Armored Machine Suit. He is the rival of Yu Ominae since he wears the Armored Muscle Suit, where the Armored Machine Suit was based on.

He has two scars above his right eyebrow.

History
It is not known how Iwao got to be a part of the Trident Corporation's mercenary force, though it would be safe to assume that he had military experience prior to joining the corporation. No other backstory was offered to explain his background or how he was recruited into Trident.

Appearance
First appearing in the Forest of No Return chapter, Iwao stated that he wishes to team up with Yu Ominae and escape the Forest of No Return. Yu sees him as an enemy as the ARCAM Corporation and Trident Corporation were enemies battling for control of the out-of-place artifacts. His first impression left Yu shocked when Iwao explained about his Armored Machine Suit, which makes faster than his ARCAM adversary. The two teamed up with Yoshino Somei to defeat the cursed forest and escape India with their lives.

He later resurfaced in Romania as part of a Trident taskforce to eliminate Yu and the other Spriggan agents assigned to investigate their presence. Even though Larry Markson ordered the destruction of the medieval fortress that they used to use the Spriggans in, Iwao came into the rubble and rescued Yu, showing that he has a sense of honor. He was later placed in charge of the SS Eugenio E, which was secretly transporting the Ark of the Covenant hidden in the passenger ship. Yu and Iwao have encountered each other again, but the two had joined forces to see what the Ark had to offer and to ensure the safety of the civilians after Sidewinder had retrieved the Ark via C-130 aircraft, which led to Yu failing his mission to secure the said artifact.

Nearing the end of the series, Iwao had been targeted for termination alongside Yu, Jean and Bo Brantz by COSMOS forces in the forests of Japan, barely defeating them when Bo died after sustaining multiple wounds suffered after fighting COSMOS soldiers off them. The trio ventured on to the South Pole, where they defeated Trident forces stationed in the region in order to disrupt Larry Markson's plans to militarize the use of the South Pole Shrine.

Aftermath
He was last seen slugging Larry when he tried to escape via helicopter. In a twist of events, Iwao graciously helped Larry stand up even though his termination was ordered by his superior. It is unknown on what happened at this point.

Character
Iwao appears to be a typical grunt who follows orders and returns alive from every mission, given the alias Boomerang by his Trident comrades. But Iwao has a sense of honor and is sometimes willing to forego adverserial ties in order to assist them in escaping out of a situation that they themselves can't escape from.



Iwao, from his conversation with his Spriggan enemies, claims that he enjoys being a Trident operative and mercenary since it gives him the ultimate thrill of hunting down a worthy opponent to fight with, especially since Yu Ominae gives him a good fight in the field.