No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying.
- Mayu Kojima
AGE
- 15 // January 25
GENDER
- Female
FLAME TYPE
- Compatible with Storm
OCCUPATION
- Student & 'Fortune Teller'
GENERAL APPEARANCE
- Both famous and notorious for her exterior, Mayu is known to delight and irritate her peers with her near permanent smile. Energy and positivity seems to radiate from her, who has been likened to air-headed anime heroines and bubbly idols alike, although truly, like the majority of high school girls, this is partially accomplished by a thin layer of concealer and subtle make-up to tint her cheeks and lips. This, in the opinion of others, compensates for her underwhelming height of five feet even. Petite and fashion conscious, outside of school Mayu favors shorts skirts, comfortable sweaters, and himekaji fashion: sailor collars floral print, delicate accessories, and pieces from Liz Lisa take up a large portion of her closet space. Despite her adoration for clothes styled to be reminiscent of a casual princess, her hair refuses to become straight, and even after a thorough brushing will begin to develop curls and proceed to look like she has eternally woken from a long nap, however, Mayu has since gotten over her complex for her hair and since embraced it, going so far to say it ‘mirrors her inner personality’.
PERSONALITY
“I’m a monster pretending to be human, aren’t I?”
She’s like the sun – she’s smiling, laughing, enjoying a carefree existence, submerged in the everyday life of a high school girl, giggling with friends and swapping make-up secrets and cramming for dreaded exams. A friendly person, an insufferable happy person, a person that is willing to help her peers streatch during PE and help them master vault jumps and handstands, a person who will share food from her bento and who will organize study groups that end in that group of friends splurging on something good to eat. She’s bright, she’s normal, a daydreamer with a penchant for spreading positivity, like an infection.
“…I forgot that my heart is cold.”
It’s all a half-hearted lie she told herself, even though she can feel the joy and take delight in this life she leads, she knows there are harrows within her that failed to be filled with nurturing care. A crying friend – she doesn’t empathize. A betrayed companion yelling, arguing – she can’t deprecate herself, she feels to guilt for forgetting and neglecting. It’s all black and white; kill the shepherd and the sheep, because isn’t it all the same in the end? She takes money from those that stare at her legs and breasts, counts the bills, sends them to her parents, purchases expensive clothes, and feels nothing. Mayu dreams of the dead and can just barely remember how they ended up in the dirt, and feels nothing.
This ordinary life isn’t for her, there’s only dissonance covered by an act of naivety.
Someone who was born beneath the moon cannot live as the sun – it’s simple.
Even though she avoids it: this innocent life isn’t hers.
LIKES
School: Although many of the lessons fail to engage her, Mayu wakes up each morning with a smile on her face, awaiting the moment when she can share her oversized bento with friends and help her peers master vault jumps during PE. This ordinary everyday life may be repetitive, but she enjoys making the small moments at Namamori High extraordinary – whether it’s through goofing off or helping someone confess to their true love of the week.
Gymnastics: It’s been the one constant in her life, and she finds satisfaction in stretching her body until pain swathes her limbs, has a love from wringing out her muscles until her body is exhausted and coated in sweat. The sport allows her to clear her mind and simply act, whether it be ny twisting her body or flying through the air.
Fashion: Since she was a child Mayu has been expected to dress a certain away for particular individuals, and has furthermore been trained to read a person’s traits through the clothes they way. Although this way of thinking has since started to deteriorate, she still has a taste for fashion and is fond of the passion people put into making clothes. Partial to himekaji fashion, Mayu follows certain fashion magazines to keep up with her favorite designers, brands and styles, and finds simply joy in experimenting with make-up techniques and new clothes to better express herself – whoever that may be.
App Games: She doesn’t care for complicated games, reading lengthy novels, or dedicating herself to collecting cards – therefore app games are one of the best ways to recharge without passing out. Her favorite games include Neko Atsume, Plant Nanny, and Line Play.
DISLIKES
Contradictions: All people are to be treated kindly, however those that do not meet certain standards are to be ignored; killing is a sin, yet under certain circumstances, can be justified; the individual in power can take advantage of others, but those without power can never take advantage of those in powers. Her thinking may often seem black and white – because in her world, it is, or it isn’t.
Exams: Once upon a time standardized tests used to be easy for her, but now her head is clouded and her memory has become poor, thus it’s no surprise that her exam grades are typically poor, or average at best. Mayu dreads exams and will usually enlist people into helping her pass them with subtle cheating, if possible that is.
Perverts: She may take their money and be accustomed to the unsavory gazes of adults and boys, but that doesn’t mean she enjoys it. Her thoughts are always the same: “what a waste, what disgusting people”. Those that approach her with their desires worn on their sleeves are to be exploited for profit and other various gains, and if they can’t be made useful, then they’re to be watched at with suspicion and spoken to with deprecation in her voice.
Horror Films: Maybe she just doesn’t understand them. These movies don’t frighten her, though excessive gore can make her wince, but more than that she’s simply confused on how they’re enjoyable at all. For some reason fictional violence does nothing for her, not when there’s plenty of real violence in their reality.
FEARS
Debt: Having experienced the stress and anxiety of being in a family that relied on incoming paychecks and had to negotiate with the hospital to make sure ends meet, money is something that naturally makes her anxious. It’s a complicated matter she would rather avoid, so the thought of being in debt makes her skin crawl, and that’s the reason why she can’t do absolutely nothing.
Becoming ‘Empty’: There’s something missing from within her – Mayu is aware of that, she knows that there’s a part of her that isn’t quite human, because she cannot feel guilt for her actions, because she doesn’t think or feel like her peers. It’s frightening to think she could become less than this, to be an empty shell that feels nothing at all, therefore she fights to preserve her persona of a bubbly high school girl, lest she finally give into her lack of humanity.
SKILLS
‘Trading’: It’s a system of two people taking advantage of one another to gain something. In her case, she’s usually after an alternative method to getting good marks, or receiving cash payment. It’s a small skill in manipulation, however, it fails to be true manipulation since the two party’s benefit from each other’s misdeeds.
Eliminating Stress: Overall Mayu rarely becomes stressed, and perhaps this is to be expected since Mayu doesn’t feel guilt. She’s talented at living in the moment and rolling with the punches, so to speak, and is the type of person that acts first, rather than overthinking something.
Knowledgeable / Experienced: Although she may not remember much of her childhood, Mayu was trained to be a hitman and valued member of a yakuza organization. Somewhere within her skull is knowledge on poisons and how to kill and cover the fact up, and her muscles will never forget the act of deceiving and killing, even if it’s been so long that her conscious mind has let her forget.
HOBBIES
Volunteering: It’s almost a habit, having become used to it after volunteering with her parents after they moved to Tokyo. Currently Mayu volunteers at the hospital and usually spends her time in the children’s ward to read them stories. If she’s not caught up in that, then she runs errands for nurses and doctors at their request.
SEXUALITY
Pansexual
ODDITIES
Airheaded & Poor Memory: She forgets dates, routinely spaces out, becomes lost consistently, cannot memorize information with ease, recall the finer points of her past, and is known for daydreaming. It’s normal for Mayu to forget to text a friend back, or for her to end up eating ramen when she simply met to go to the library to study, and you can rely on her to be that poor kid who gets called out for sleeping in class.
Yakuza Dogma: The lifestyle was pounded into her head during formative years, and although it’s been repressed, their dogma is still stubbornly a part of her. A sense of responsibility to her country, a gray morality, a twisted perception when it comes to laws and crime and what is right and what is wrong – it goes on, to hierarchal order, honor and loyalty, and concepts of an ‘eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’.
- Acrobats & Contortion: Enrolled in gymnastics since she was a child, Mayu’s muscles are flexible, strong, and uphold a memory of their own. She can contort her body in various positions, including being capable of bending her back until she can grab onto her ankles whilst standing. Since she still participates in the sport, and considers herself a competitive individual in it, she can perform various flips with ease and can seamlessly move her body, able to complete physical feats with such fluidity that it seems that she acts without thought.
Guilt Free Conscious: Contrasting with the personality she presents, Mayu is unfamiliar to the emotion of guilt. Simply put, she is incapable of feeling remorse for her actions, and instead feels indifference for any misdeeds she had committed. As a child, while she assisted her mother in various crimes including murder, she did as she was told without flinching, and has suffered no trauma since then. This state of apathy has allowed her to, perhaps ironically, maintain her sanity, for she doesn’t stress over social dynamics, nor does she feel guilt for taking advantage of people –whether it be to gain wealth, help her grades, or push herself ahead.
WEAPONS/TOOLS
- Pepper Spray: It’s an essential since her job is compensating dating – aka- talking to men much older than herself for cash. It also comes in handy when walking around alone at night, or if her male classmates cross a line. She hasn’t had to use it on very many people, but it’s comforting to have it in her purse at all times.
BOX WEAPONS
- N/A // TBA
TECHNIQUES
- N/A // TBA
STRENGTHS
- Physical Fitness & Athletic Experience: As previously stated Mayu has participated in the sport of gymnastics since she was a child, and therefore maintains and healthy, fit body with muscles that retain their own type of memory. Having progressed in the sport to be considered a worthy contender at nation-wide competitions, she has outstanding control of her body and has an above average amount of stamina and endurance.
Killing Experience: When she was a child Mayu took part in helping her parents and the Yamaguchi-gumi ‘transport enemies to the other side’. This was usually done by her deceiving them, sometimes luring them to a certain location so adults could take care of them, or to eliminate them herself. At this stage she administered poison to these people to kill them, and was taught of different substances and methods of killing so even medical examiners wouldn’t notice any foul play. Additionally she has a developed sense of stealth and charisma due to this previous practice.
WEAKNESSES
- Physical Disadvantages: Although Mayu’s body is in shape and is capable of extraordinary things, she was never formally taught any combat techniques or any form of martial arts, thus her ability to fight hand-to-hand is currently unexplored. As one would expect, those with knowledge in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat would be able to easily overpower her, especially because she lacks muscles mass and therefore has none of the strength that would come with it.
Combat Knowledge: It was more likely for her to doze off during history class than memorize techniques used by famous army leaders, and Mayu would have no idea how to handle herself in a fight, rather than to approach it head on. She simply has no background knowledge on what one would do in this type of situation, even when she was taught the ways of the yakuza since they only planned for her to be a hitman, not a solider.
ROMANTIC INTEREST
N/A
FAMILY
Takayuki Kojima (47) & Chiaki Kojima (44) & Masaki Kojima (3) [Father, Mother, Brother - Living in Tokyo]
Ryutaro Kudoh & Chizuru Kudoh [Grandparents - Lives with them at Namamori]
HISTORY
The newlyweds were praised for their kindness and intelligence, their level heads, and lifestyle that framed the desires of many. The woman had a doctorate in botany, the man a graduate from law school, and the two of them had been born into separate generations of trained killers, both in tongue and in action. Affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza organization, the two upheld the organization’s identification as a chi organization in opposites. The man entered the government structure, acting as a diplomat of sorts, and solidified his good name through eloquence and meticulous paperwork. The woman, however, had her feet buried in the dirt, and polished the Yamaguchi-gumi name by transporting threats to the other world in silence. Thus, they were two sides of the same kind, ruthless in their own right, yet generous – as they sought to support their own country, and heavily took part in organizing relief support after disasters, and were known in the group for assisting other members who were struggling, or had family that were.
Their child, born of cruel and righteous blood, suited neither side.
Mayu Kojima was their first child, and instead of being protected behind firm doors like many yakuza children, walked alongside those that manipulated foolish stockholders and tricked women from overseas into lives of prostitution. They saw their child as a successor – someone who should be raised to surpass the two of them, who could continue working for the Yamaguchi-gumi and protect Japan without the encumbering expectations of morality. When she had grown old enough they enrolled her in gymnastic classes, where she stretched her muscles alongside children of ordinary families, and furthermore they taught her their doctrine. During these formative years Mayu was considered to be their ideal child: she followed their orders without question yet questioned everything else, she pushed her body beyond its limits without complaint, she recited the laws of their clan without stuttering, and assisted her classmates in areas of academics and physical training.
But she exceeded expectations – she could administer vials of poison to those sleeping in hospital beds, she would hold onto the hands of those with death sentences, and she would lead people into the otherworld much like her mother could all while knowing exactly what she was doing, knowing the morals of normal society and understanding the act of killing and the state of death –and never did her parents hear her cry or question their validity of their actions. And this, watching their child kill with a cold heart, is what brought a tremble to their spines, and what caused them to flee Kobe for Tokyo – her parents taking on new names, new faces, new identities, and the Kojimas were born.
They forced themselves into ordinary molds, abandoned their precious lives and attempted to fix their wrongs by teaching their child of morals and philosophy. Nonetheless, what had been learned and experienced in formative years have made a permanent mark on her, and although Mayu began to develop beyond an object for the Yamaguchi-gumi, especially as her memory of childhood began to fade, she never developed a capability to feel as other people commonly do. They replaced her previous routine with acts of selfless kindness – the family regularly took part in volunteer work for the city, often including assisting struggling families, individuals with severe disabilities, and eventually the cold child they raised grew into one with a warmer persona – as if she had become the sun itself – howbeit, her memory began to fog, and she became what’s commonly known as an ‘airhead’.
This they could accept, attributing the mental change to the stress they put Mayu in during her formative years along with the typical treatment for good health that she was deprived of. Now without the burden of the strict doctrine, without needed to twist her perception to kill, Mayu’s brain had to shift and alter itself to accept a new way of living that contradicted her previous life – and so it was without surprise that her range of emotions became shallow, how simplistic she could be, and why her test scores became completely average.
But Mayu became a happy, cheerful child, and that’s all they could ask for.
Or, that’s how it seemed on the surface.
At thirteen Mayu began to wander the streets of Akihabara with flyers, and she became involved with the act of compensated dating. She started walking with adult men and speaking to them in a friendly manner shortly after her younger sister was born – a sickly baby who required many visits to the hospital to survive and special technology to support her at home – and originally it was to help provide for her family. Without them knowing she would send funds into her parent’s mailbox underneath the pretense of an anonymous member of the community, and it was in this way that she began to rediscover the nature of her heart. Men her father’s age would stare at her bare legs with an expression that could be described in no way as lewd, and she discovered when other girls like her felt ashamed or scared, she felt nothing. This was a means to an end, she saw herself in an arrangement with these men that was nothing more than two people taking advantage of one another, with one party interested in money, and the other directed by perverted desires. When her family unveiled the truth they sent her to live with her grandparents in Namamori – hoping that keeping her away from the city would help undo the damage they, and the corruption of the city, had done, but the move did little to change her.
She was the same as she had been: moderately popular at school for her sociable and helpful nature, a competitive gymnast, and a person of self-interest. If she couldn’t make good marks on her own, then she would make a ‘trade’ to convince others to help her (whether this be by helping students boost their popularity or by shortening her skirt when studying with an interested person); if she couldn’t make money on her own officially, then she would work outside the books and become a ‘fortune-teller’ for lonely and perverted adults. She feels no guilt for the natural order of the world, and continues on, smiling and joking, just like any other high school girl.
