Match of the Millennium

Rina is a teenager who was born and raised in Metro City. Her mother, Misaki, died of complications during childbirth, leaving her father Aengus to raise her with support from Misaki's parents, Kenta and June Kobayashi, who also lived in Metro, as Aengus' parents were living in Ireland at the time. Despite the tragedy of losing her mother, Rina proved to be an exuberant young girl. She first started learning to skate at the age of three, when her grandmother June took her on a day trip to a neighbourhood roller rink. It was when describing Rina's enthusiasm later to her father that June first referred to her as a 'little rocket,' and the nickname stuck. This proved to be a favourite pastime, and each year on her birthday Rina would usually receive a new pair of skates from her grandmother. Eventually, she joined a derby team, where she acted as a jammer.

Providing for his daughter grew steadily more difficult as living conditions deteriorated in Metro, and eventually, finding himself unemployed once again, Aengus ended up falling in with Mad Gear. This proved to be a mistake when, shortly thereafter, Mad Gear kidnapped Jessica Haggar, and despite mostly attempting to keep his head down, Aengus ended up in prison, taking the fall for a number of drug and assault charges.

In the aftermath, the young Rina moved in with her mother's parents, who became her legal guardians. Having her only parent arrested left the girl bitter. In her view, her father didn't deserve the long prison sentence he had received - after all, he was only trying to make a living - but at the same time, she viewed him as something of a coward for letting Mad Gear tell him what to do. She ended up resenting both Haggar and his crew and Mad Gear.

Living in the slums with her grandparents proved to be rough, especially for a girl with Rina's still-adventurous spirit coupled with a growing anger. While she was close to her grandmother, her relationship with her grandfather was somewhat strained; first, because he saw her as undisciplined - she broke curfew regularly and was developping a potty mouth - and secondly, because he harboured some resentment over the fact that his daughter had died giving birth to her. Rina knew that her grandfather was a practicioner of Kenpo and even knew some cool tricks (he had demonstrated the ability to produce a small chi flame to her before), but he refused to teach her either on the grounds that she would either use it to pick fights or burn their house down.

Kenta's attitude softened when Rina proved unable to outrun the consequences of her mouth one evening, resulting in her coming home bloodied and bruised after getting into a fight with one of the local gangs for tagging on their turf. On the condition that she only use what he taught her in self-defense, he began instructing her in Kenpo. While lacking in discipline, she had a natural talent and speed that allowed her to learn the basics quickly. With a great deal of pressure, Rina even managed to convince him to teach her how to harness the power of chi. Unfortunately, while she seemed to have a natural affinity for power, she had a lack of control, and in an odd manifestation, her chi flames created a powerful back-thrust when used, as if igniting a rocket or firing a cannon.

Rina decided to compensate for this issue by adapting her style to the use of roller blades. She used them almost constantly, especially since she'd started part time work as a courier. With some effort and practice she was able to adapt some of her Kenpo techniques to the use of roller blades, and while projecting chi while on rollerblades still caused propulsion, she was able to better maintain her balance.

Currently at the age of eighteen, with few prospects in the way of post-secondary education, Rina is looking to set out on her own. She has entertained the idea of becoming a tournament fighter - after all, some of them are pretty rich, right? - but has yet to participate in a sanctioned fight.