⌈Promises are for those without trust, pride is for those justifying their own murder, and death is for the one that never gets ready for their final moment⌋
⌈Age⌋
Twenty-seven
⌈Appearance⌋
[justify]Kotone shines of determination, sheer willpower and strength. While her body shows very little muscles on the outside, she is surprisingly strong for her thin build, a tool she has used since pretty much the beginning of time. She stands a mere 5'5 foot tall, though for a woman, that is quite decent. And besides, she makes up for the low height with her ego and charisma when standing up towards men.
While adoring long hair, it really doesn't work for her, so Kotone keeps it cut down till it reaches just past her ears. On that note, her hair has a chocolate brown color, just like her eyes. She has an overall friendly and calm face, it is easily possible to guess that she's confident in herself and holds no doubt when doing anything.
Clothes-vise, it depends a lot on the occasion. When she has no reason to sneak around, doing normal ninja stuff that should have been a constant, she love to dress up in strong colored clothing that is easily noticed. As well as that, she would normally bring the twin pair of bigger blades, instead of a more tactical set of smaller ones, which would of course be easier to hide. All of her blades are based upon kunai knives, though the bigger pair has taken a far step away from the classic design, having a more western feel to them.
⌈Likes⌋
- Fighting - She has strong beliefs against the male dominated society, especially when it comes to fighting, and believes that it is pure blasphemy that a woman shouldn't be able to fight.
- Attention - Not wanting to admit it, she is a fair bit of an attention whore, she loves being looked at, and loves to hear people talk about her.
- Herself - Yeah, her ego probably needs a bit of work, seeing that it is currently towering higher than Mt. Fuji at the moment...
- Conversations - While she is supposed to be a ninja or something in that genre, she generally enjoys a good conversation, regardless of the turnout.
- Arrogance - Kotone really dislikes arrogant people, kind of weird seeing that she is about as arrogant and cocky as one can get, though the point is that she is of the type of person that has to be the best to feel good, which is why arrogance is not something she appreciate much.
- Hard labor - Definitely not her type of work, she can do it, but in the end, she prefers to be the one carrying the grains of rice falling out of the bag rather than the bag itself. If someone else can do the hard work for her, she would definitely not mind it.
- Sexism - Yeah, she's a feminist, to some degree at the very least. She thinks strongly against a woman being treated as something fragile that has to be protected, that they are unable to stand on their own legs without support.
- Chivalry - It shouldn't matter how prideful a battle is, there is one winner and one loser, in the end, there is only one going out with a crown anyways, so why take the time to be polite to a future loser?
⌈Personality⌋
Kotone's personality is quite the peculiar thing to think of. When met in most common situations, she is pretty much the opposite of what one would expect of a ninja. She's noisy, cocky, arrogant, and demanding to be around. She enjoys to be the center of attention almost as much as she likes to win. However, the twin side of her that is hardly ever seen as she hates it herself, the self-confident bitchy one that is, would be a far more silent, professional, restrained side of her. While her combat capabilities are about the same, she doesn't shine of the same confidence, nor of the same anything really, she becomes pretty much like a polar opposite version of herself. She wouldn't say a single word if she wouldn't have to.
Another thing that is worth noting about her more... Apparent side, would be that she despises being talked down to. She believes that a female shows just as good combat potential as a male does if she actually receives any training, though with such a man dominated society,She isn't exactly a person people would listen to until they found themselves laying on the ground after a half-a-minute fist fight with him not getting in a single hit.
⌈Relationships⌋
Morimoto Reiko - Kotone's mother, a cheerful woman caring for the people around her, with a strong and decisive mind that would easily put the people around her over herself, especially her children. Not married, but lives together with her new husband, not daring to marry him in fear of dishonoring his name.
Kazuki Kouchi - Reikos' oldest son, two years younger than his older sister. He still lives with their mother, helping to bring in food by working in the stall of a local fisherman while he is out. Liked his sister and miss her, sure she'll come back at some point, despite starting to have his doubts.
Kazuki Tatsuji - Reikos' youngest son, being five years younger than his sister and three years younger than his brother. Currently unemployed, though he helps out in the local rice fields if more people are needed. Has never had much of a relationship with his sister.
⌈Equipment⌋
Twin Kunai
Her primary weapon when actually have to stay silent and in the background, Kotone's main weapon would be a pair of kunai, both razor sharp and special made to sport a singular hole in the middle instead of at the end of the hilt, to make them fit better to her own combat style, which relies heavily on the ability to flip on the blade, which the hole helps a lot with.
Ritualistic Twin Kunai
The second pair of weapons Kotone use regularly. The base of the blade is made like any other kunai blade, however, moving up from there, the blade is a lot more bowed, has an a lot more detailed finish. Another thing worth noting is that the blade has one circular hole near the shaft of it, made to prevent blades from sliding along the blade and down to the users hand.
⌈Strengths⌋
Kotone is a well experienced ninja and knows well how to easily kill people, remain unseen, or to blend in. She has experience in using a wide array of weapons, though she prefer the kunai to an extent. She specializes in fighting opponents in heavy armor, using her much higher speed to easily take down the opponent. Besides this, she has an unnaturally agile body, allowing her to jump very high, easily lean far to the sides, do splits, and so on.
⌈Weaknesses⌋
While her speed might be an big advantage, it naturally means that she can wear a minimal amount of armor to keep her mobility on top. Wearing a lot of armor would might increase her defensive abilities, it would still make her unable to dodge incoming attacks and so on. Besides this, her weapons are of short length, meaning that she need to get close to the target to attack. Besides this, her arrogant and self-centered personality makes her quite ruthless and it could easily put her own life in danger just for the sake of proving herself better than the opponent.
⌈Home⌋
At the moment, she's a wanderer. She moves between a couple of inns every once in a while, though for the most, she prefers to stay away from them. A tree serves her just fine and she finds it more comfortable regardless.
Born as the unwanted first daughter out of three siblings her widdowed mother eventually had, Kotone's start of life was fairly smooth. Her mother was an well-experienced dancer, working as a waitress on the side for some extra money, something the family needed, especially after Kotone's two years younger brother came to life.
When the young girl passed five years of age, her mother decided to start teaching her the one art she actually knew. It was awkward, hard, and undoubtedly challening for the short girl to try to replicate the long and silk-smooth movements of the older, taller and by far more experienced mother. However, after several weeks of hard work, she started improving.
Two years later, when she was seven, she started to actually show some real talent. She had been awarded with a very flexible body from her mother and strong yet thin muscles from her father, undoubtedly something every dancer would desire. Her mother were proud of her, and she was starting to enjoy the dancing a lot.
However, the joy would naturally not last forever. A couple years later, with her being almost at the level of her mother, something happened that made her realize how society worked to say the least. While walking home with some food her mother had requested to go and purchase, she could hear something happening between two houses. She could hear a woman screaming, it seemed out of place, her mother told her to never do anything dragging attention. So with her attention naturally being caught, she walked closer, seeing a young woman, not more than maximum 18, getting strangled up towards a wall.
While she knew that men did that all the time to one another, she had never seen it happen towards a woman, and it made her notice the notable difference in strength. The woman did not by far have the strength to make the man loosen his grip, so it didn't take long before she died of suffocation. Not honorable, not notable, just straight out murder. Everything her mother had told her about her father sounded like a long thought-through lie. He couldn't be honorable, he couldn't have died in battle protecting what was good, he wasn't some perfect person who would never do anything wrong. He was just a murderer. Just like the man she had seen. The difference was of course, that his father would have fought towards someone with a whole different premise than what the woman there had. Her father would be prepared, trained, and ready to sacrifice his life. The woman she had seen had probably been doing some everyday thing, for then to be pushed up to the wall and strangled by a drunk warrior.
It took barely a second for her to realize that if she entered the alley, she would probably be killed as well. She had learned from her mother that drunk people were not to mess with, the outcome could be quite unwanted. She barely managed to walk away however, terrified. She realized while walking home that the woman she had seen could might as well have been her mother, or herself for that sake. It made her feel sick, but then again, what was there to do about it? It wasn't supposed to be her job to make sure things like that didn't happen, nor was she socially and culturally allowed to, it would disgrace the family name further, after her mother decided to find a new husband, the name she carried from her dead father held less honor than it had after he died.
A couple more years passed, and Kotone's view on the world around her became darker and darker. It felt like incidents like the first one just kept popping up, more frequently than ever. Time after time, someone were killed. And the pattern was clear as well, the majority of the incidents that happened were women killed by men. She had never seen a woman kill another woman, nor did it happen especially often that she'd see a man kill another man out of nowhere. The men had their names to worry about, while the women hardly had any reason to kill one another. Though then again, was there any true reasoning to take another persons' life anyways? In the end, murder was murder, there was no justifying it, in the end, one person won and another one lost, paying his or her life as the stake.
It was of course only a question of time before she found herself in a situation she wished she'd never end up in. One of the men in the village had mistaken her for a prostitute simply because her kimono was hanging a bit loosely due to being too big for her. It was a question of economy, not wish, but the man refused to listen. She managed to hold him away for a while, but eventually, he had her cornered. No-one to save her, only her and a man at least a foot taller than her, with enough muscles to crush her bones if he grabbed around her.
He had a knife in his belt though. Not a big, killing knife. Just a small, pointy knife used for skinning animals or something in those lines. It could be for cutting up fish for all she knew. It didn't matter however, she had no intentions of having her womanhood taken by a complete stranger due to a misunderstanding. She had managed to lean out for it while he was concentrated on making her look him in the eyes, and it didn't take long before the knife was driven through his neck, in on one side, pushed till there was no more blade. Then again. And again. Three times at all, two in the neck, then one in the chest. She could feel the silk she wore getting bloody, she could feel the extra weight. Disgusted both by her own actions and by the blood itself, she ended up running away from the small city. It became very spontaneous, but she ended up deciding to run away. Running away from her problems. The most cowardly, unsolving solution there was, yet, it was so bloody tempting she fell for the idea her own mind had created.
While travelling to the next city by foot, she started thinking about what she had done. It made her feel sick of herself, wanting to kill herself for a while, though, she managed to convince herself it had been for the greater good. If not herself, then who would have done it? It wasn't honorable at all, it had been dirty play, she had distracted him while getting ready to stab him, not giving him a chance to even prepare for the assault. However, it had been effective, undoubtedly. She hadn't been hurt other than mentally, so in the end, it had been an successful counterattack.
When reaching the next town, she had made up her mind. She wanted to be a warrior as well. She had heard stories of female warriors, some more interesting than others. Yet, her goal would probably never be reached. She had no-one willing to train her, no father anymore, and who would agree to training a physically unable female to become strong? It was like trying to plant something where the ground wasn't fertile enough, nothing healthy would grow out of it. Yet, she didn't give up, she begged every armored figure she met, but still, she was weak, short, and had nothing to offer in return. A lousy offer with no money to make up for it. She felt like some nasty street rat as she stole food to stay alive, despite being just enough to live on, leaving her hungry for the most part, though the guilt was worse, the guilt of stealing what was to be the money that person would live on, stolen by her for nothing in return. Her self confidence started to drain slowly.
Yet, she never had the time to truly reach the pit of despair. She got in contact with a Shinobi out of pure coincidence as she saw him talk to different store owners, looking for someone. Eventually, she came to her. She knew the person he was looking for. It was a friend of hers. Well, friend would be an exaggeration, but she knew him, that was the most central bit. He was kind, had never hurt anyone as far as she had seen. However, it was probably her biggest chance. She ended up making a deal with him. The location of the man in exchange of her training, at least for a while, so she could prove the potential she was sure she had.
And it worked out. Her friend was killed in exchange of her own training. A dreadful sacrifice, but it had to be done. Survival of the fittest. And she managed to prove herself. Despite being hungry, tired, and not having worked out for a long while, she still managed to save herself a spot as an apprentice.
During the next four years, she followed the Shinobi, did tasks for him if she was asked for it, dirtying her own hands, balancing her unstable mind with a self-created ego, adding a counterweight to the sad and depressing thoughts. It was her way of escaping from all the terrible things she did over the years, all the terrible acts the mightier samurai families didn't want on their names, so they dropped it over on someone without names, anonymous to the world. Everything from burning down whole city-parts just because a single man in the region had slept with his wife, to poisoning water to kill a single victim. All sorts of extreme wishes, though she wasn't in a position to object. The warrior of justice or whatever you wanted to call it she once dreamed of being was long gone, all she was now, was some pathetic rat lurking in the shadows, justifying her own acts as mere objectives, telling herself time after time that she would make up for it at some point, but till then, she would have to keep on running.
After her apprenticeship was over, she had already stepped up to being worthy of the title of Kunoichi. Female ninja had a lot of advantages males didn't have, despite also being vice versa. Any dreams of the past were nothing but a mere joke. All she was now was someone wondering how to make up for all the terrible things she had done, running away from it till she found the solution.
Eventually, she got in contact with Yousuke. The work was, despite not being the honor of a samurai, did at the very least not lead to bloodshed that had never been needed at all, that easily could have been avoided. She didn't care for honor anyways, but the blood that could be spared deserved to be spared. Her own mental state had already been the stake she put up when she entered the line of work, and she had lost, losing it, replacing it with a fake one crafted by herself solemnly to be able to withstand her own presence.