Blaze the Igniting Spark

[Code Name] Blaze

[Gender] Female

[Combat Experience] 14 Years

[Place of Birth] Yan

[Date of Birth] Mar 24

[Race] Feline

[Height] 172cm

[Infection Status]

Originium crystals distributed across surface of body, confirmed Infected by medical examination.

[Physical Strength] Excellent

[Mobility] Excellent

[Physical Resilience] Excellent

[Tactical Acumen] Standard

[Combat Skill] Excellent

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Excellent

Gu Zhuhuang, code name Blaze, is an elite operator who wields powerful, destructive Arts over a wide area. Able to handle both Guard and Caster roles, she plays a key tactical role in various combat operations, from assault to defense to raids.

Imaging tests show the indistinct outlines of internal organs, obscured by abnormal shadows. Originium granules detected in the circulatory system. The subject is confirmed to be infected with Oripathy.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 17%

Blaze's Originium crystals remained largely confined to her torso. No further spread has been noted.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.25u/L

Blaze continues to be active on the frontlines; if anything, she has gotten even more active since her return from Yan, frequently participating in Catastrophe rescue missions and operating fearlessly in high active Originium environments.

Fortunately, she is taking better protection measures than before, and her condition remains stable.

Blaze is finally taking protective gear seriously. It's a good thing. All about finding the right person to nag her about it, I guess.

—Medic Operator Y.P.

[Hairdresser's Log]

Client: Blaze

Service: Hair straightening

There's no way to straighten hair that was curled by fire! Please be careful when practicing Arts.

—Goldenglow

[Tailor's Log]

Client: Blaze

Service: Repairing hole on clothing

This is the third time Blaze has come to have her clothes patched. Always the same request too: 'Don't let the one who gave me this find out.' Good thing it's just a hole this time, not an entire sleeve that got burned. She's making progress in controlling her flames.

—Bibeak

[Weapon Workshop Log]

When Blaze first started studying the Arts unit she brought back from Yan, I thought she would go back to her chainsaw after blowing a few holes in the training room walls. She's BLAZE, after all, someone who can saw through a two meter thick blast-proof door in a matter of seconds. Turning to something so restrictive would be like a Vouivre warrior fighting with a sewing needle.

Little did I expect her to come back and ask me to fit a precision adjustment valve for the Arts unit.

She said she wanted to discover new possibilities for her Originium Arts, transforming heat to fire. 'True strength is being able to control one's power,' as she put it. Anyway, I fitted the valve for her, but I'll be sure to laugh in her face when she comes back, begging for me to remove it.

They were trying times. We could hear the explosions, things breaking, screaming, and fire alarms from the training room about once every five minutes. But she never came looking for me.

Until one day it all stopped, and all was quiet in the training room. I peeked inside apprehensively, and saw not flying sparks, but Blaze standing there with a flame in her palm, bright and stable.

Blaze's innate Originium Arts Assimilation does not stand out among the elite operators. She had gotten to this point through hard work and raw willpower—as she always does.

Every asset is important to Rhodes Island, and Blaze has always been one of our most valuable.

—Mechanist

Blaze, who hails from Victoria, was visiting Yan for the first time. She had a bunch of old letters in her hand, and everything in Baizao was fresh and exciting to her bright eyes. She cheered the sugar painter showing off his work—when he asked if she wanted one, she said no, because it would melt in her hand, but she wanted to see him paint one more.

Blaze said her father was a man of culture. As she looked for her father's name on the poetry board in front of the Virtue Bookstore, she also looked at the poems others had left on it. 'What's this... er... scent of... osmanthus... oh! This is about autumn!' She managed to read some of the cursive writing in vertical Yanese script.

After visiting the academy, we had xiaolongbao at a nearby restaurant. I had hardly picked up my chopsticks before her plate was empty. She had nothing but effusive praise for the dish, and the hot soup inside the buns did not seem to bother her in the slightest. I recommended that she take a little more time to take in the flavor, with the traditional method of 'bite, sip and savor.' It took her some effort to slow down, but her eyes went wide once she did. 'Wow, there's so much in there I didn't taste until now!'

I started telling her about the origins of Baizao cuisine and how some of its most famous dishes were made. I have rarely had a listener so attentive, who not only gave me her undivided attention, but was also unafraid to ask questions like 'Why not add three portions of sugar at once, instead of adding one portion three times?'

I enjoyed our conversation very much, and was already making plans about where to take her next, but sadly it was not to be.

—Excerpt from 'Baizao Cuisine & Food Culture', Volume 3

Blaze talks about her childhood from time to time.

She has always had a fiery temper and straightforward nature, never afraid to make a stand, whether at school or among the kids in town. She protected the weak kids, and raised her not-so-strong fists against bullies. Her actions, of course, earned her plenty of scolding from her father.

Her father was very different from her, and Blaze never once saw him argue with someone else. He always preached the principles of conflict avoidance and treating others with magnanimity, as written in the classical Yanese texts.

'One time, I said to him: 'You always tell me to be patient, to endure, but what if the bad guys don't stop? What if there's no way for the victims to get justice?'

'Dad thought about it for a long time before putting his hand on my head. He said that if the time comes when there is no choice, when backing down is truly no longer an option, and when I'm sure I must stand up for justice... then I should make a stand.'

The young Blaze did not really understand what her father said, but listened and tried to keep her temper in check.

There was no particular drama to the story of how Blaze contracted Oripathy.

When her father left Victoria, she, already a young adult, began working at a local factory in order to ease the burden on her mother. Such factories in remote regions, with lax oversight and inadequate Originium safety measures, always have their share of Infected workers, but Blaze befriended everyone, treating them all as equals.

Blaze found out that the owner of the factory, who had promised to supply medicine to Infected workers, was refusing to provide even basic painkillers. At first, he claimed that his request was still being reviewed by the governing noble, but Blaze soon realized that the medicine was being held in a warehouse outside the quarantine zone. In fact, medicine was being brought into the warehouse on a weekly basis, before being smuggled out in small batches and sold to the highest bidder. The factory owner had never intended to make good on his promise.

When the workers protested, the owner had soldiers brought in to 'keep the peace' and round up all the protesters. Watching her friends go down one by one because of illness, Blaze went to the door of the factory and begged them to bring medicine, only to be met with the soldiers' cold, indifferent looks. That was when Blaze realized that the time when backing down was no longer an option had come.

Blaze smashed a hole in the wall of factory and led the workers' charge into the medicine warehouse. That was the incident where she contracted Oripathy.

Blaze's life was turned upside down, heralding the events that would eventually lead to her joining Rhodes Island.

'I still think of Dad's teachings sometimes. He wasn't wrong, but I don't regret what I did one bit.'

Only much later did Blaze learn about her father's past. It made her eyes go wide first, then brought tears to them. She never imagined that her gentle, timid father had long since made his own stand for justice. They had been separated by thousands of miles, but were walking on the same path, in a way. Once again, she seemed to feel the warmth of that hand on her head.

'What is this, Lin Qingyan? Did you want me to investigate something for you?'

'This list of names is for you. The ones in bold are the ones still alive... your true relatives. It wasn't easy putting it together, but as far as I know there should be nothing missing.

'My true... are they doing okay?'

'The exile was just relocating them to cities away from Baizao. The government is providing support now that the ban has been lifted. It's not much, but at least they're being compensated for the suffering they went through.'

'Good... that's good enough.'

'You have regained your Yanese identity. If you want, you can go back to Yan to seek your family, even live there, and no one will stand in your way.'

'You're not going to seek them out?'

'No. Or rather, I don't know. Let's say I do find them. What do I say to them? What do I do? We never knew each other our entire lives. What happens if I just showed up? Do we embrace each other in tears and pour our hearts out to a stranger, just because we share the same bloodline? Maybe it's not the right thing to say, but it's not me they need, and it's not me who should be offering apologies and compensation.

'Besides, I never had an identity in Yan to begin with. Whether it was being framed as the descendant of a traitorous official forty years ago, or this abrupt pardon, everything was just to make up for a lie. None of it has anything to do with me.

'Let's turn the page. That snow was both the ending, and the answer.

'We'll hang out together once your practices are over. But I'll come visit. As Blaze, elite operator of Rhodes Island.'

You were curious about the bowl of viscous liquid Blaze was eating, her hands covered in flour.

'This? No, it's not black sesame soup, it's tangyuan. The last few broke from the heat of my palm, and I cooked them so they wouldn't go to waste. The ones I made earlier are alright, so I'll cook them for everyone once my sister gets here.

'In Yan, tangyuan is the symbol of a reunion. Plopping down this bowl of glutinous rice balls in front of someone is all you need for them get the message. And if it's coming from someone like me, who always speaks first and thinks later, would it send an even clearer message? No idea, but that's why I wanted to find out, while everyone is here.

'The reunion could be for me and my sister, linked not by blood but by fate. It could be for me coming back from a long journey, and seeing everybody else for the first time in a while. You get a bowl, Amiya gets a bowl, Mechanist gets a bowl, and...

'...And there are so many others I wish could be sharing tangyuan with us.'

Blaze's tone drops a bit, but she soon picks herself up.

'I know. Nothing's ever perfect, and life always has its share of sorrowful goodbyes. What does it matter, though? Many of us have left, but no one will ever be forgotten.

'Our dreams have never changed. All of us here at Rhodes Island will always be together.'