Well-meaning, easygoing, and a bit of an airhead. The young Kazu was quite popular among his classmates during his first year at Hinotori highschool. Even after a life-altering motorcycle accident, he still maintains his cheerful demeanour. However, there is an unignorable air of hush, distrust, and disgust from the people who have heard about his ill-fated encounter on that one summer night. The peers he once considered friends have started to pity or ignore him, frustrating Kazu to the extent that he has chosen to be by himself outside the classroom. Slowly, his ostracization from most school social circles is chipping away at his once bright outlook on life and turning it bleak.

XII - The Hanged Man

Hell's Angel - a raw and wild expression of freedom which struggles against the bindings of societal expectations. In the mythos of Judeo-Christian religions, it is said that the angels that rebelled against the allmighty god Yahweh were cast out from heavenly Paradise and into the deep, burning infernos of Hell. Yet, the form of Kazu's Persona is not what a biblical angel is depicted as in any religious text. Instead, this psychological manifestation of power takes the motif of biker outlaws that the recent loner has recently found admiration for due to their self-reliance. Regardless, the Hell's Angel acts as the ever-present guardian of Kazuyoshi and as the personification of his unsung, obscured deeds.

A futuristic racing suit based on his perceptions of top professional track drivers is what Kazu changes into upon transformation.

Kazu relies on his heavy biker boots as his preferred weapons of choice.

Life was great for Kazuyoshi Asakura. He has a supportive family that wasn't hurting for money, he was surrounded by people who partied with him every weekend, he had a sweetheart of a girlfriend that he took on dates everywhere, and he wasn't failing his classes. Unfortunately, as he would soon find out, life is fickle and can turn on a dime.

It was a warm summer night, perfect for a party out under the stars on a grassy field. Of course, what party would be complete without under-aged drinking. While he can't remember much else from the night, he did remember thinking that he could drive back home. Unfortunately, that would be his last thought before waking up in a hospital bed with a cast on his leg and some lacerations all over his body. His parents were angry but not just because of the accident he had gotten himself into. No, they were furious that Kazu had gotten his girlfriend into that accident as well.

She was in a much worse condition. Bruises covered her arms and a major scar across her face could be seen just from a quick glance. Guilt had gripped Kazu's heart. For the rest of his stay in the hospital, his mind would just replay the night of the accident and try to think of what he could have done differently to avoid this. Regardless, the repercussions of his actions would soon make themselves apparent. First, the Asakuras had settled out of court with regards to his girlfriend's medical fees and reparations. Secondly, rumours of his dumb accident had spread like wildfire at Hinotori high school. Thirdly, his driver's license had only been suspended due to a low alcohol concentration though this was a mere formality since his motorcycle had been totalled. Lastly, his summer homework still needed to be done.

By the time the school year had started, most of his physical injuries had healed. The same cannot be said about everything else.

They say that fortune favors the bold, but when does that boldness get to be too much? Maki couldn't tell you. A vivacious person, she's quick to state her opinion and show her combative nature. If someone steps up to Maki, she returns the favor. Quick to curse words and burning insults, one would assume those were her only personality traits. She gets what she wants. Unfortunately, she may have burned some bridges via emotional Molotov Cocktails to do so. Arrogance would be a strong word for her attitude, but it wouldn't be entirely wrong. While there's not a sense of entitlement, there are definitely rungs of importance that Maki has constructed, and she puts herself on top. It's born from her independence and a wild streak. Maki likes to think of herself as an unflappable and untameable beast. Yet, that isn't the only thing that Maki is capable of. She's smart. She's intuitive. And she can sigh deeply, ruffling her bangs, and help when people really need help. Maki's not heartless. She just gives her heart sparingly.

The Tower

Ammut

► Cleave [Physical - Light Damage]
► Rebellion [Support - Increases One Ally's/Caster's Critical Rate for a Brief Time]
► Counter [Passive - Low Chance of Reflecting Enemy's Attacks]

A black headpiece adorns her forehead and has reptilian fang-like protrusions that lay over her brows. Her black hair hangs, bound in golden circlets for a make-shift ponytail. From there, her torso is covered in segmented golden armor with gaps that reveal black fabric underneath. Over that is a green and black biker jacket with "Man Eater" embroidered in gold. Her legs are covered in what look to be black torn jeans leading to knee-high gold plated boots with quite a heel.

A weighted chain with flecks of gold coming off of it

Maki never fell from grace, because she never had an altruistic pedestal to stand on in the beginning. Despite gossip painting her as a bad seed, she didn't have a shitty childhood. The Ito family managed to do well for themselves. Her father was a salesman, her mother a nurse, and her two older brothers were accomplished athletes. Despite her having a strong family unit she wanted so hard to stand out. Her brothers had gotten into their schools of choice with such high academics and athletics it painted them shining stars. Maki didn't want to occupy that same star-scape. Maki wanted something greater—something a little more her speed—so she ended up crossing a line. But let's back up a little bit...

As a young child, she showed a talent for art that while not prodigal, was notable. This talent cultivated more and more, and as such became more and more interesting. She started to hear that "she was following in the footsteps of her brothers," and that she was a "cookie-cutter good daughter." Maki had stood at the fringe of social acceptance before she heel-turned and shot a milquetoast life the bird.

She fell into an interesting group of peers at school. They were vagrants, at best. Prone to fist-fights, smoking, breaking and entering, and vandalism. It was this last part that caught Maki's eye. The girl moved from oil paints to spray paints. Within a few months, she'd made a name for herself as quite the alley art savant. There she met and fell deeply in love with Nakamura Toyoshiro. Honestly, love was probably too strong a word. Yet, Maki never half-assed anything. This was why she bought into this lifestyle and clique with such fervor that it got her a reputation at school. No one wanted to mess with her due to her rough nature and the rough nature of her friends. They did a good job keeping it out of sight and mind of authority figures—until, well, they didn't. A squabble with a popular girl left Maki in a meeting with her teacher and parents... and said popular girl with quite the black eye. It was around then that her parents watched her with more and more scrutiny. Their curiosity wasn't sated until one fateful night when Maki was caught.

What had she been doing? Well, that would be a tight-lipped secret kept by the Ito family. Yet, that wouldn't stop the rumor mill. The most common one would be about her and her boyfriend's promiscuous behavior. Another one detailed a nasty fight that left someone in the hospital. Yet another would state that Maki and her boyfriend burned a building down. And those were the serious ones. They only got more outlandish and cartoonish as time went on

Immediately, Maki was branded as a delinquent but not in an exciting way. A public spectacle was made of her to deter other kids from "following her path into anarchy." It didn't make her cooler. It alienated her from everyone and everything she loved from the embarrassment that now hung over her. She went from being an almost modern-day sukeban with an artistic streak to a friendless freak. In hopes of getting their daughter back on track, the Ito's had her take up a part-time job once she got back from spending the break with an aunt in the countryside.

As the new school year began, Maki still maintained her shitty job and her equally shitty reputation. Though sometimes, in quiet rebellion, she'd carve lewd sentences onto the bottom of any bench she could find. It was the small things. And she needed the small things, as those that she'd bullied in the past had turned the tables right back on her.

► Despite her ousting in her social group, Maki is still a talented artist. She hasn't actually produced anything since her medium of walls and spray paints were taken from her.
► She is always wearing headphones. People assume it's some sort of emo-metal. Maybe it is. Maybe it's also pop music.
► Doesn't know what Nakamura Toyoshiro is up to. She hasn't seen him since she got in trouble. Though, Maki has noted that he's said nothing to stop the rumor mill.
► Maki's arch-enemy may or may not be the cat that runs the street by where she works.

Eager to please but sometimes a little too overbearing to actually make it happen, Daigo is boisterous and energetic in the same way an annoying little brother would be. He's hardly someone his peers would consider a genius - don't need booksmarts to run a restaurant, he claims - but he's infectiously cheery and tries his hardest to make sure everyone is having a good time. Even if he's crossed the line from lively and spirited to irritating as hell at the moment and doesn't realize he's the problem. Still, Daigo makes it a point to always be smiles and laughter, even when the smile is forced and his eyes are unfocused and dim rather than lively and vibrant. Not to say such a facade is a common facet of his features - usually his personality is genuine, but occasionally he'll overhear someone talking about money and his posture will sink for just a moment, or mention of the family business he formerly bragged about with pride and animated gestures will elicit only a noncommittal hum or halfhearted commentary. A subtle anxiety underlies a lot of his moods as of recent times, and while the boy had always been hesitant to express outward negativity, he now pointedly avoids any kind of introspective or 'deep' talk that he wouldn't usually shy away from. He's fine. Everything's fine. It'll all work out.

The Sun

Khepri - Egyptian solar deity representing the rising sun, creation, and renewal.

Kouha (Light Bless damage to one foe)
Lunge (Light Physical damage to one foe)
Rakukaja (Increase one ally's Defense)

Daigo dons a suit of old-timey samurai lamellar, colored similarly to his Persona and stylized vaguely to resemble an insectoid carapace. His already vibrant hair gains highlights that glitter in a brilliant array of colors like the sky at sunset; fiery oranges, yellows, reds, even purples and blues at times. These streaks are normally unnoticeable but quickly become apparent during movement or a strong breeze when Daigo's hair shifts and catches the light.

Naginata

The Hinaris are, as Daigo will proudly boast, owners of a kaiseki diner that dates all the way back to the Edo Period. He grew up helping out in the kitchen and, once he was old enough, serving customers. It was a fulfilling existence, even from a child's perspective, and when Daigo's grandfather retired and passed ownership of the restaurant to his father, the boy was eager to throw himself into the family business with the knowledge it would likely one day be his. The dream was far less glamorous in practice. With the change came a decline in customers - perhaps the old clientele was no longer interested in a diner that wasn't run by Daigo's grandfather, perhaps the modernization of Kyoto simply left the old place behind. The Hinaris continued as they had for generations, chalking the situation up to a string of bad luck that would soon be over.

Apparently the business' woes weren't as secret as the family thought, as Daigo returned from school one day to find his parents meeting with a pair of sharply dressed businessmen. They wanted to buy the restaurant for a particularly nice sum, as it was located primely in the middle of their company's new urban development project. They could take the money, start the family business over in a new area, reinvent their brand, be set for life, et cetera, et cetera. While Daigo's mother was open to consideration given their recent monetary losses, his father, naturally, would have none of it. Kaiseki Hinari would stay right where it was until the sun engulfed the Earth and maybe beyond that if he had anything to say about it.

After that, new development conveniently sprang up in a way that left Kaiseki Hinari out of the way from a pedestrian's standpoint and somewhat inconvenient to reach in lieu of much more accessible dining. Already on hard times, it took only a few short months to reduce the restaurant to toeing the line of closure when traditional means of attracting customers were suddenly no longer viable. Too stubborn to change the diner's business model or advertising strategy but too prideful to sell, Daigo's father seemed determined to go down with his ship; whether his family starved in the process or not. For what it was worth, Daigo agreed with him - in part, at least. He loved that restaurant; selling the business now so it could be torn down by scheming rats or worse, letting said vermin whore out the Kaiseki Hinari name for their own profit, was unacceptable. Still, his suggestions on modernizing the business fell on deaf ears. The fact that he'd convinced his father to sully the restaurant's proud traditions and begin selling - heaven forbid - mere lunch bentos was practically a miracle.

Unfortunately, problems beget more problems. As it often did, heightened stress and the threat of poverty turned the trivial quirks of any family that would usually be glossed over into glaring issues ready to tear the household apart in arguments and irritability. Debts were mounting, tensions in the family were high over whether to sell or not, his mother was threatening divorce over his father's stubbornness; Daigo's life was set on a downward spiral straight to the ass-end of misery with no exit in sight. He had no options but to push it all down into the depths of his psyche, put on a smile, and greet the ever-slowing trickle of customers like he always would.

Always fidgeting, sometimes to others' annoyance. Poster child for restless leg syndrome. Not a guy you wanna sit next to on a wobbly bench. Taptaptap.

At first glance, Yori is a prickly person. Similar to her cactus-colored hair, she's known to cause harm to those who get close to her. Speaking in a blunt manner, she pushes her own opinions onto others, disregarding the other party's feelings as she barges into any conversation she can get an edgewise in. When rebuffed or dismissed, Yori is quick to show just how much she dislikes being ignored, quickly devolving into what one could only call 'colorful language' while attempting to cut deep into their heart by pushing their buttons.

However, in the off-chance that one comes to understand her, they come to realize that what she does is her own, misguided way of attempting to be nice. Approaching others when she overhears a problem, joining conversations that require resolution, calling someone out when they have a behavioral problem that needs fixing. All situations in which she realizes there is a problem. It's just that the way she goes about solving said problems isn't very polite, always attempting to get to the core of an issue no matter how she gets there and barging in to fix the problem no matter if they even really wanted it or not, resulting in the bully-like disposition she seems to have.

On the flip side, she's very unwilling to accept help from others, believing that things are 'best done you do them yourself'. Only in the direst of circumstances, where she is physically incapable of doing something by herself, that she's willing to accept any sort of aid. Even then, it would be with great reluctance, and if she somehow recovered from her debilitating state she would immediately attempt to take over no matter the state of completion.

Temperance

Zio - The dangerous flash of lightning is followed by the loud and mighty call of thunder, shaking the hearts of all who hear its roar.
Garu - The thunderstorm is heralded by the howl of violent winds, upending anything not bound to the earth for a brief, turbulent trip through the skies before gravity returns them harshly to the ground.
Dia - The eye of the storm, still and silent, soothes both the mind and the body even as the tempest continues to rage on around them.

When her persona is revealed, Yori dons a headpiece with a single-ringed horn protruding from the crown of her head. Her attire turns into a long, sleeveless silver coat, the collar laced with hair similar to a horse's mane. Each of her limbs are adorned with three, golden bands, mirroring her persona, and beneath her coat she wears a sky blue tank top and similarly colored shorts, ending with black boots with white fur upon the top similar to her coat, and silver stockings that end at the bottom of her thigh.

Daikyu Yumi, a greatbow.

For Yori, family is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, her three younger siblings bring her all the joy she needs in life, brightening her world every time she comes home, all pushing each other around to tell their eldest sister about their day before the others could. Their mischief and rampant energy, despite the occasional accident or broken vase, soothe her hardened heart, and though they may sometimes get on her nerves, they're the ones that hold the key to her heart.

On the other hand, however, the circumstances that lead to Yori having three siblings half her age were less than ideal. She was the only child of her father's first marriage, which ended in a divorce. The second marriage, through which her three siblings were born, ended when a birth complication cut short the life of the spouse. With her father unwilling to remarry and forced to work overtime in order to support his family, Yori was all that was left to take care of her three, infant siblings at the tender age of nine.

In an environment with an absent mother, Yori was forced to fill the role. Between school hours and her body's requisite hours of sleep, she dedicated all of her time to raise her siblings. For the first few years, when babies are the neediest and require the most care, there were times that she wouldn't even have the luxury of rest. Yet despite her trials and tribulations, picking up the skills needed not only to support her family but also herself when their father wasn't around, Yori continued forward, keeping up her grades despite her circumstances and even picking up a job the moment she was able to when she turned fifteen.

All for the sake of her family. Unable to interact with her peers nor build lasting friendships as she was always needed at home as soon as possible, how could she have anything else?

Though her eyesight isn't terrible, Yori carries a pair of reading glasses with her for the smaller text that her eyes can't focus upon.

Tsuda Chiyo seems to bring a cloud of miasma with her wherever she goes. It's not from the smell of her slightly-greasy hair, nor is it her hyena-like laughter. Rather, she brings with her a potent aura of fujoshi energy, swirling around her hunched form like a cloak of protection. Her warped imagination knows no bounds. Two boys talking about the next basketball match? Homoerotic tension. A senpai consoling his junior after a breakup? They'll be dating next week. She's not afraid to hide it, either. Chiyo will go out of her way to put others in "ideal situations," then watch them to see what happens. Refuse, and they just might end up as the subject of her next doujin.

Her online persona isn't much different. Chi-sensei commands a small legion of several thousand like-minded followers on Twitter, producing yaoi fics, art, and other such content for fictional characters and real people alike. Her persecution complex reveals itself in full on the web, and she's gained a sort of infamy for her invasive actions.

Magician

The Torn King of Desire, Mara. Embodies impulsive actions, obsession, and misapplication of skill, things Chiyo is intensely familiar with.

Dons a broad, slightly crooked purple witch hat, short robes, garter stockings, and black painted nails. Picture (ignore the pumpkaboo)

Fights with a sacrificial dagger about the length of her forearm.

Tsuda Chiyo always had an eye for romance, able to spot a primary school crush from kilometers away. She knew all the gossip, the drama, the secrets untold. As a child, she was the de facto matchmaker for her friends, able to set up a first kiss situation with ease. But she was never the one being matched.

Not until she was 14, at least. She fell for a soccer player by the name of Nishimori Aito, and she fell hard. Daydreams, love poems, little sketches in class, she was completely and utterly obsessed. She even wrote a love story between him and herself- nothing crazy, just a tale of a first kiss.

Eventually, she worked up the courage to confess, and presented all her creations to him.

"Creep."

Her heart broken, Chiyo's love turned into hot, burning anger. She wrote multiple stories of Aito, placing him in horrifying scenarios of death, despair, and torture, then handed out copies to her entire class. The stunt earned her a week-long suspension and completely devastated her reputation.

Afterwards, Chiyo found herself alone. Barely anyone would speak to her. No more matchmaking, no more gossip, no more secrets. Her only solace was the net, where she could write and post whatever she liked without fear of repercussion. She started creating BL, and soon found a niche market in the fandom of a popular show. Still, a part of her longed to see romance more tangible than lines on the internet and characters in a script.

Then, a stroke of luck. Her father and mother picked up jobs on the other side of Kyoto and decided to move just in time for Chiyo's freshman year. New people, new district, new romances to create. Maybe even a special someone...? Whatever the case, Chiyo knows things'll be different this time.

Once bubbly, outgoing, and full of life, Emi’s recent tribulations have put a damper on her personality. Gone is the cheery girl who flitted from club to study group to night out with friends without skipping a beat; nowadays, she finds her time and energy are better spent furthering a single goal: finding out what happened to her friends. In that sense, her recent strife has sharpened her focus, and while she used to fill her busy days to the brim simply as a matter of course, it's clear now that there's a genuine purpose driving her actions.

Thankfully, though, Emi hasn't been entirely hardened by her grief. She's still the kind soul she always was; just a little more muted. Even as her search for answers monopolizes her attention, she still struggles to refuse someone looking for guidance (especially in the field of Personas), and loss has made her cherish her friends, both new and old, ever more dearly.

The Moon

Euryphaessa most often manifests as a swarm of many small, black-and-white butterflies, which disperse around the area in which they are summoned. These butterflies act as Emi’s eyes and ears, giving her enhanced awareness of her surroundings and any changes thereof. To attack, Euryphaessa’s butterflies converge into a tall, humanoid creature with five arms and butterfly wings where its head should be.

Lookout - Scout out the area, making it harder for enemies to ambush you and easier for companions to land hits. (Passive)
Pulinpa - Create a distraction, inflicting Confusion on one foe. (Magical)
Mapsi - Unleash the swarm, inflicting light damage to all foes. (Psychic)
Bluff Call - Detect your foes’ weaknesses. (Ability)

Upon transformation, Emi dons a flowing empire dress made from layers of shimmering white gossamer. Tattoos of flowers and other flora sprout up across her entire body, whose blooms change colour and species depending on her mood.

Emi does not carry a weapon.

To ask Emi’s parents about her life, they’d say she caused quite a stir when she was born, and hasn’t stopped since. The first part, at least, is true: having contracted an infection in utero, Emi was born without much use of her eyes, and in the following few years she was determined to be legally blind. She spent the first few years of her life in her parents’ small-town home, under the watchful eyes of doting parents and doctors alike; however, when it came time for her to start school, the family had to pack up and move to Kyoto, where she could attend a private school for the blind. Tuition and rent were expensive, forcing Emi’s parents to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, but they handled their stresses gracefully. All they wanted was for their daughter to live the fullest life they could offer her; Emi understood that even from a young age, and decided early that she’d make sure her parents’ vision for her became a reality, vowing never to allow anything to hold her back.

That resolve pushed her to pour herself into everything she did, from schoolwork to navigation lessons to hobbies. As it turned out, the lifestyle suited her: Extroverted and full of energy from the start, Emi had no problem throwing herself into action. She carried that attitude forth when she left her private school to attend Hinotori High, thriving with more people to meet and more activities to involve herself in. It didn’t take long for her to find her way onto every student association she could fit around her schedule, and in the gaps between meetings, she was always planning things with friends. Overall, her manic schedule rarely left her with a moment to herself - and you know what, Emi liked it that way.

She started her second year just as strong, but fate rarely goes long without changing. It wasn’t far into the school year before something happened, something beyond imagining, to tip her world sideways and shake out all the sense. Something awakened inside Emi that she could barely comprehend, let alone explain; the desperate utterance of one word set in motion events that shook her to her core, and led her to question not only her sanity, but the very nature of reality itself.

Persona.

Be it by luck, fate, or something else entirely, Emi was mercifully not made to cope alone. As it turned out, something similar had happened to a close friend of hers, and that friend introduced her to a few other students who’d had similar experiences. Encouraged that they weren’t alone, together they helped each other to make sense of the strange new world they found themselves living in, learning about Personas, Shadows, and the Other Side. Before long, research turned into investigation, and soon enough the aptly-named Torch Bearers passed an absolutely wild summer of battle, strife, friendship, and introspection, all in an effort to burn out the corruption lurking behind every mirror. It was terrifying, crazy, and miles beyond reasonable belief, and it was an experience Emi was certain she’d never forget.

Until one night, she stumbled home through the mirror with her mind and memories blurry. In the morning, she was told her friends were dead.

She didn’t believe it at first. Knowing the power they commanded, Emi couldn’t accept that any one of her friends could possibly succumb to something as simple as a house fire. In fact, it wasn’t until she was taken to the wreckage to smell the smoke for herself and feel the ashes between her fingers that she even believed there’d been a string of fires at all. There was just no way; it had to be fake, or a misunderstanding, or some kind of collateral damage from some climatic battle on the Other Side. But the Other Side would no longer admit her; when she tried to cross over and find where her friends had gone, she only succeeded in shattering her mirror.

But even if she couldn’t believe they were dead, her friends were most definitely gone, and the loss of such close friends would be devastating for anyone, even without uncertainty and suspicion gnawing in the backs of their heads. Emi’s desperate insistence that the fires couldn’t have claimed her friends fell on deaf, piteous ears, her concerns waived as the tragedy of a grieving girl still in denial. School, once a haven, became a torment; Emi couldn’t bear to walk the halls that now felt so empty, couldn’t stand the pity in people’s voices when they offered their condolences. As a result, she took the rest of the school year off, sequestering herself away at home with only her grief and confusion for company. Questions taunted her day and night, and uncertainty threatened to consume her: What became of her friends? Why had she been spared the same fate? And why on earth couldn’t she remember?!

For months, Emi was a husk of herself, her outspokenness silenced, her buzzing social life traded for solitude. Neither the efforts of her parents or her doctors could console her, and no possible progress on the investigation of her friends’ disappearance could satisfy her. As the new school year approached with little improvement, it seemed that the grief and the guilt would consume her - until, at long last, a light shone through the darkness.

A dream. A gentle-voiced man in a lavish train car came to her one night, speaking of things at once outlandish and hauntingly familiar. But what pulled Emi from the depths of her hopelessness wasn’t the man, the contract, or the key; rather, it was the woman beyond the door, singing an aria that Emi knew by heart. It was a melody that one of her friends, presumed dead, always used to sing. One she always claimed she’d “heard in a dream.”

The dream came back night after night, but it didn’t have to; it only took that very first night, when Emi shot up in bed with her face streaked with tears and that music in her head, for her to cast off the shackles of grief once and for all. She was no good to anyone mourning alone in her room, and as far as she was concerned, that song was the clue she needed. Her friends didn’t die in a fire: they were Torch Bearers, fire only made them stronger. Now, it was certain that something else was at work here, and at long last, Emi was going to figure out what.

Her friends called her The Navigator. Now it was time to lead them home.

Nanase is an introvert. She’s always been an introvert since before the accident.

But when she was younger she was a happy introvert. The sixteen-year-old version of her personality is a bit more dour and pointed. She’s blunt, but not confrontationally blunt. She doesn’t smile, even for appearances, and the idea that the polite shy girl she once was still exists is hard to say. Losing family and the anxieties of her own psyche has brought a good deal of bearing on her. She knows she doesn’t want to be like she was. She wants to be more assertive, but she finds doing so quite difficult. Her classmates have known Nanase as the quintessential kuudere, quiet and ready to speak her mind when she absolutely must.

Justice

The Maid of Orléans, Jeanne

► Rakukaja

► Cleave

► Brave Blade

The transformative energies bestow Nanase with the appearance of a lady knight of sorts. Shades of silver and angel white are notable in this appearance. A circlet completes the transformation.

Sword

Mutō Nanase was born and raised in Kyoto for the entirety of her life.

Actually, that’s not true. Nanase came to Kyoto from Osaka, where she’s originally from. It’s a convenient lie to say she’s always been in Kyoto, one deeply rooted in her experiences as a child and the abrupt move when she was seven years old. To say she comes from a broken home is an understatement.

Her father, Tatsuro, was not a nice person. Between the smell of saké and the yelling, the Mutō household was in a constant flux of verbal abuse. She remembers the fights sometimes, but most often she tries to forget because she stood there pretending to not notice what was going on in front of her. She didn’t try to do anything. Not even a contest of “please, stop fighting”. Her own fear of retaliation even though her father never rose his hand crowded her mind. Eventually, as these things go, things escalated to a breaking point. Her mother, Teruko, tried to keep up appearances but on Nanase’s tenth birthday she killed herself.

Her father didn’t change. There was no remorse. He called her a coward in a drunken stupor while Nanase herself had remained catatonic from finding the body for the most part. Soon enough a change of scenery was decided for the two of them. One of her father’s more sober and rational determinations. The move from Osaka to Kyoto wasn’t too extreme and a change of scenery did stop reminding Nanase’s father of his dead wife. Nanase thought it was hiding. He always did like hiding. But she was no different as she began to pretend nothing ever happened, pushing any memory deeper and deeper inside her heart. Nobody stood up for her mother and she certainly didn’t make things any better. Why else would her mother choose her birthday of all days to give in to grief and despair? As always there was no answer and Nanase was left filling in blanks.

So she filled in blanks. When people asked things she played pretend. Eventually, strange things appeared again in her life when she couldn’t stop some new friends from doing a stupid thing. Then there was the fire. The destructive, almost enticing fire. Then came the stories and the weird dream. She still hasn’t been able to make sense of it all.

She just knows another bad thing is going to happen. She just doesn’t know when.

To Be Determined as needed.