Kazemaru

[Code Name] Kazemaru

[Gender] Female

[Combat Experience] 9 Years

[Place of Birth] Higashi

[Date of Birth] Dec 29

[Race] Feline

[Height] 157cm

[Infection Status]

Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

[Physical Strength] Standard

[Mobility] Standard

[Physical Resilience] Standard

[Tactical Acumen] Normal

[Combat Skill] Excellent

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Standard

Former Higashi shinobi. Referred to Rhodes Island for work through household connections and coordination with the head, following the previous head's passing and a clash between her own views and the new head's business goals.

Presently stationed in Victoria as Rhodes Island intelligence personnel.

Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, the operator is believed to be uninfected.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 0%

Operator Kazemaru shows no signs of Originium infection.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.12u/L

Operator Kazemaru rarely comes into contact with Originium.

After more than half a year working for the new head's business firm, Kazemaru couldn't stand it anymore.

Maybe some people are just born for danger and the shadows. Though the steady side of their heart may try to take root when they spend long enough in a safe environment, the remaining facets will only cry out even louder, driving them to the brink of madness.

Kazemaru is exactly that sort of person. A placid life will only dull her claws, murder the gleam in her eyes, and choke the ingenuity out of the origami in her hands.

Wearing the same exact uniform each day, handing her card to business partners, sitting in meetings for hours on end, the only excitement Kazemaru ever got was the occasional chance to nose out intel on rival companies. Though she'd entertained the idea that coping with hopeless days like these wouldn't kill her per se, there came a day when the wind blew over a flowerpot on her way home from work, and she completely failed to detect or dodge it in time. Standing in the middle of the street, her head covered in soil and clay chips, she felt she could bear this no longer. After a whole night discussing her objections with the household, she proposed her own idea to the head, and the young lord gladly gave his consent. He relieved her of her contracts, and handed her over to Rhodes Island.

Free from the firm, Kazemaru has returned to her scene once again: a battlefield brimming with danger.

Kazemaru once revealed to Rhodes Island a few shinobi training methods.

In Higashi, clans of all sizes tend to keep a suite of shinobi on their dime. Some people's whole families will be shinobi of Higashi's great households, their fealty sworn for generations. She herself undertook training from the age of five, and the merciless and peculiar-sounding exercises helped her to fulfill mission after mission with flying colors. Moreover, her Originium Arts grant her the ability to control an origami substitute indistinguishable from the real person. Whether to confuse the enemy, aid in combat, or make time to catch one's breath when retreating, Kazemaru can control her doppelganger to her complete satisfaction.

As for what her future holds, Kazemaru hasn't thought that far ahead.

After all, she originally reckoned she'd be sworn to the head all her life, and that once she could no longer serve as her lord's blade, she might train newcomers, or go far away and leave it all behind. Maybe even work out a thing or two in the fashion field. But never among these was the option of leaving Higashi to be situated in a Victorian government office, taking down meeting notes.

The young lord's abrupt reforms made her realize that so much of the future was beyond her planning. All she needs to do is make every step in the present count.

There aren't many days Kazemaru returns to the landship. When she's back, the first thing she does is enter the conference room, where any passing operator will see the lights remain on from early to late.

But whenever they think something HAS to have happened to the people in there, that they should take a look just to be safe, they end up putting their ear to the door and hearing a muffled, unbroken discussion coming from within, and these duly worried operators are forced to let go of their resolve to knock. Of course, not a word of the discussion can be clearly made out.

Conversely, Rhodes Island's children eagerly anticipate such days, for the nice Feline who can make paper things run and fly is about to bring them origami toys more novel than ever.

The truth is that Kazemaru isn't playing along with these children of her own initiative; her identity and training up till now wouldn't permit her to do so. But by chance, after the children found out her origami could move, they hounded her, pleading her to teach them how.

Though she was initially flustered by this, she was quick to brandish her mastery, rapidly taking on the role of a close, big-sister-type friend to the children, a dedicated origami expert, sweets-lover, and enthusiast of play. However, while Kazemaru may have been subconsciously disguising her identity at first, you can imagine from the hints her face lets slip now and then that she really is enjoying herself.

The children are delighted on the occasions they meet her, but at the same time worry whether this Feline seemingly not much bigger than them—so short, with fingers so soft—might have gotten hurt outside.

On more than one occasion, HR operators have seen this and sighed to themselves: 'they all think Kazemaru can't be more than a few years older than them. Oh, you sweet summer children...'

Kazemaru has been 'employed' by Caladon's government for a while now.

Under a new identity, she's assimilated perfectly with the city council, and has even smoothly set Rhodes Island up with passage permits and business certification for several duchies. She also makes use of her post to obtain each count's list of industrial property addresses with little effort, as well as detailed blueprints for all manner of buildings and thoroughfares, helping enormously advance every mission Rhodes Island has.

At the same time, as a Caladon City Council recorder, she has direct, firsthand access to the councilors' viewpoints. The council nobles think nothing of the employee forever taking down notes in the corner, and as they wage their war of interests, her pen rarely ever pauses. But they don't know just what lies in her writing.

Kazemaru's seen her fair share in Victoria; while it's not quite the same as in Higashi, they have their similarities. She didn't originally have too much of an opinion on it—after all, as a shinobi, the first thing she was trained to do was loyally carry out her lord's orders. However, through completing missions for Rhodes Island, she's gotten to know several Infected friends and noble daughters constantly busy helping the Infected. She's gradually started to shift from her former, rigid, shinobi way of thinking. She's begun to change her goals, no longer desiring solely to fulfill assignments, but to regard the land with a new outlook, make sense of Rhodes Island's ideals, and help deal with the problems the Infected come across, along with the other Rhodes Islanders.

Nowadays (though the Doctor has not requested fealty from her as per her shinobi status), Kazemaru considers what she does here to be much more far-reaching than her time as a shinobi, and she's glad she could take this path. She no longer considers herself just an agent of a family, but an agent of impetus, hoping she can do something with Rhodes Island to change the land, and she has long been willing to offer her loyalty to this work.

'People are scared of the Infected, but they don't know that the corrupt who duck behind the issue, out to achieve nothing but their own goals, are the ones they should fear most.'

These are the words she spoke to the operator receiving her, following full handover of her tasks, when she returned aboard one time to report her work.

She's all but clear about what it is she needs to do now.

'You had all these shiny straps one time when you came back, swinging about on this little handbag, and this huge smile. That was the moment I went, like, oh, damn, you're pretty cute!'

'The figures in your room are all really gorgeous, Miss~'

'I've had it really under control lately! I'm not going to spark everywhere anymore. Don't get mad at me again, okay? I'll give you a new hairdo, how about that?'

'Second issue of L'Officiel Victoria came in. You weren't around at the stand that day, so I saved you a copy. No rush!'

'Um, you were wearing really pretty clothes the last time I saw you... I-I want to be pretty too! Can you teach me next time you come back? Please? Thank you!'

'Do you think some blue highlights would look nice on me? Hmm, what if I try some bigger curls?'

'Can your paper person thing hold water? How long can it last away from you? Do I get to learn how you control it? Can I have my own paper me? Can I trade this sword my family passed down for one?'

This last letter has been singled out and stuck onto the letterbox, written over in heavy letters: 'NO!'

—The personal letterbox at Kazemaru's door