Kumiko Otani

大谷 公美子 (Otani Kumiko)

### Weapon/Weapon Focus

Energy focused at first, weapon focused later. Uses a katana as a primary, and a crossbow as a secondary.

### Aligned Organization

National Anti-Anomaly Security

Your local swamp frog catcher! An average height girl with a somewhat bulky body-type. Her hair is right above shoulder length if straight, with bangs that cover her bandaged left eye, and flips upwards on the ends. No one can predict what she will wear next, but she does try to dress comfortable most of the time. Her nails are always different colors. Plays multiple instruments, loves arcade games, and getting down and dirty with nature. Speaks fluent Japanese and Communia, and has a subtle Paraforan accent.

## Personality

Sunshine packed into a person!

Kumiko is as spunky as she is bright, as silly as she is mature. Many don't know what to make of her at first, and might write her off as eccentric or an oddball. Shes very open about what makes her excited. Often she can go on long rants about her interest. In her mind floats a million frog facts, along with musical history and arcade trivia.

She is excitable and humorous, but her capacity for maturity is admirable. Kumiko was shouldered with a large amount of social responsibility, and though she broke from her mold, tons of the habits stay behind. Often, she had to take the adult's role in life and be the one to make hard decisions about her future. This left her in an odd place growing up, as she was both eccentric but able to handle adult situations, that left her socially isolated with almost no close friends in high school.

Her role caring for her physically disabled aunt made her grow up faster than a person her age should be expected to. Independence left her with a sinking feeling of loneliness later in.

She takes the opportunity to help and take on everyone else's burdens, and does this to avoid dealing with her own emotional problems. Kumiko is one of the first to comfort someone who is hurt. Kumiko can see the best in most anyone, and that can make her come off as naive.

Kumiko internalizes her worries and feelings, which leads her to having migraines and can make her physically sick to her stomach. She gets angry, but rarely to the fullest extent she feels it.

Kumiko wants to be a hero more than anything in the world, and her motivation is to save as many lives as she can and to make permanent change. This leads her to taking on dangerous tasks or volunteering for things that could put her in jeopardy, and is the reason why she is an AO in the first place.

## Everyday Life

Kumiko spends her time training as hard as she can in her AO group. She's slowly adjusting to the brand new lifestyle, and so she frequently has questions for others and is confused by some things that others consider commonplace. She puts in overtime, and takes books from the library to study in her free time. She loves the interaction she gets with the others, since she had little-to-no friends in high school.

Kumiko can be defined by her hobbies. Shes frequently found at the arcade, mesmerized by rhythm and guitar games. (A secret she keeps is how much she's spent at the arcades as a collective.) In addition, she likes to go to rivers and lakes and search for wildlife-- especially frogs. She have extensive knowledge about frogs, and used to sneak them home and get scolded. She loves going to stationary stores and buying items for arts and crafts. Her favorite hobby, though, is her collection of odd and "ugly" pieces of clothing. She makes a a joke out of no one expecting what she will wear the next day.

## History

Kumiko was adopted in infancy, and can only ever recall being raised by her adoptive parents. She grew up in Japan, but was born outside of Paradiso. It's a probability that she was one of the many children taken from a hospital and later sold, and eventually ended up in adoption services in Paradiso, but no one knows for certain. Kumiko is raised by two competent but emotionally absent parents, both of which are AOs who worked outside of groups. She grew up with her brother, @Cato Otani, and they both grew close. They both moved from place to place in Paradiso-occupied Japan, so Kumiko never really had a sense of a "childhood home". An aunt of Kumiko's moved in, a disabled and previously drafted Paradisian war veteran named Mei when Kumiko was 11.

Cato left the home at age 16, leaving Kumiko behind for reasons he barely explained. Kumiko felt lonely, but began to bond more with her aunt in his absence.

Later, Kumiko's parents died in a battle in their home. She was left at age 14 to care for Mei on her own, and left school in order to work two jobs as well as odd jobs. She didn't want to leave her house, or make Mei have to leave as well, and sacrificed much of her freedom to help Mei. She returns to school.

Kumiko meets Haruka soon after her parents' death when Cato sent him. Haruka is transferred to the AO group closest to Kumiko, and becomes the leader. He helps with chores and with some financial troubles along the way for Kumiko, and it allows her to relax just a little. This brings with her curiosity about Haruka and Cato, and what their jobs could possibly be. She does more research, and digs around on the internet on conspiracy theory boards, and eventually uncovers a PDF that contains the steps to become an Anomaly - Anomalous Human (AH). Overwhelmed with the drive to become a hero, Kumiko follows the instructions, and survives.

Later, in school, she's discovered by another AO that she's not human. Haruka finds out this news. He helps bury it so Kumiko can remain with Mei and not have to be in a group, since he worries it could get her killed. Haruka finesses the system, so Kumiko only has to participate in small amounts of AO activities. She meets with him every once in a while to battle demons.

Eventually, Haruka gets in trouble for using group funds to help Kumiko financially, and forging documents that would let her do off-site AO work. Kumiko is forced to move out and join Haruka's group, AOG #113 of SW - HKD.