Atsuko Kato

## Atsuko KatoOST

Atsuko in 2015

"***I don't know, Sir. If you can convince the Chief to find somebody else to investigate why there's Benzotrichloride in this guy's blood vessel, I'll gladly come back to drawing facial composites and traffic safety posters***"
—Atsuko Kato
**Atsuko Kato (加藤 惇子, Katō Atsuko)** is an original character designed by Oneechanisgood. Atsuko Kato resides in the *The Order* universe.

Atsuko is an Investigator for Japanese National Police Agency and a research scientist at National Research Institute of Police Science. Atsuko's field of expertise is Forensic Chemistry.

## Biography

Atsuko was born in the Japanese city of Hiroshima on January 19, 1988. Atsuko is the oldest of three children. As a kid Atsuko didn’t spend too much time outside and prefer stay at home. Other than reading or watching TV, her new favorite activity is drawing. Her quick progress shows that she has talent in this field. As the oldest children, Atsuko is compassionate and responsible. She liked helping out with chores and babysitting her younger siblings. Her parents will compliment her for it and that’s what she enjoyed. At school, Atsuko was also one of the academically excellent student. Atsuko will do her best in everything to get her parents’ 100% approval.

Atsuko showed aptitude especially in Natural Science where physics and chemistry are her forte. Atsuko loves reading fiction in general but in particular she loves reading mystery fiction and detective stories.

Atsuko’s favorite leisure activity in high school was drawing. Since the school has no art club related to drawing, Atsuko joined the theater club. Atsuko played mainly small roles and was never a main cast but still has an important role in the club as the one who drew and designed their costumes. Atsuko started selling her illustrations at the famous Comic Market (Comiket) event since 2003 under artist name AKO TOTSUKA which is an anagram of her name.

Upon entering high school, Atsuko figured that she’s going to be a Policewoman, but still torn whether to join the National Police Academy or going to college first to keep her options open. In the end she decided to go to college first. Atsuko started learning Karate in 2001 and
Judo in 2002 to prepare her physical fitness.

In 2004, Atsuko was selected for a government scholarship and decided to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying Chemistry. Atsuko returned to Japan in 2007 and attended National Police Academy. In 2008, Atsuko was posted to Shibuya Police Station, Community Safety section.

One evening in May 2009, Atsuko was on a JR Line to Tokyo from attending a convention in Nagano while off-duty. When the train is passing between Hokuto and Kofu, an error occurred and the train got derailed. The conductor did an emergency stop. The 4th car caught fire and it quickly got into the other cars. Atsuko’s car haven’t caught fire yet but the commotion already took place. Aware of the situation, her officer instinct kicks in and she directed an emergency fire evacuation with the crews. The evacuation process went pretty well until the 4th car’s fire got seemingly worse and still about 6 people in there, some are elderly people. She’s thinking about how to get these people out in what looks like a brief moment from the outside but in her head that feels like an eternity. She entered the train from the 2nd car that also started to caught fire and broke through the passages to open escape route via some of the more healthy cars. With 3 out of 6 people already collapsed her job became more difficult.. She got in, grabbed whatever she could use for protective measure, opened escape route, grabbed them as fast and as delicate as possible, and get the hell out of the place. All without proper protective gears and supplemental oxygen, and repeat that six times. When everyone’s already safe from those burning chunk of metal, Atsuko still haven’t finished yet. She gave emergency first aid and temporary treatment for those injured until the paramedics made it there. After the reinforcements came over she collapsed and was treated for excessive poisonous smoke inhalation and several burns. The people who survived that day, represented by the 6 people Atsuko personally escorted from the car visited her in the hospital and gave various get-well-soon gifts (and other gifts). Atsuko received various honors including the Japanese Medal of Honors with Red Ribbon and a promotion to Sergeant. Atsuko is now eligible to be assigned to National Police Agency and got her dream job to be an Investigator at the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

After a year on duty Atsuko asked for permission to continue her study in order to help with her job at the NPA. The upper brass granted the request since her performance review showed impressive results. Atsuko won another government scholarship and went back to MIT to research Forensic Chemistry until 2012. After her return, Atsuko was invited to attend training for Inspector candidate. She was commissioned as an Inspector in January 2013 and work as a researcher in the National Research Institute of Police Science.

By 2015, Atsuko has had 16 peer-reviewed journal articles to her name including a study that won her a Nakamachi Prize and Peter Debye Prize. Atsuko was subsequently awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government for her meritorious contribution to the field of Chemistry.

## Appearance

Atsuko is a 27 years-old girl of Japanese descent. Atsuko is 163 cm tall and weighs 54 kg. She has long, straight black hair with smooth texture. Atsuko has brown eyes and fair skin. She has a birthmark under her left eye.

## Personality

Atsuko is a sweet and cheerful girl, always putting up positive fronts. As a police officer, Atsuko is a person of high integrity and honesty. Her kindness makes her a pleasant company to everyone. She has great discipline and a think-first kind of person. As one of the brightest kids in her cohort, Atsuko has sharp minds and great intellectual. Her playfulness integrates well with her high artistic interest and flair to create a decent visual artist.

Though she has been a police officer for a few years, she’s not the most assertive person you can find. She’s rather hesitant when it comes to enforcing her will and that’s mostly what has been hindering her from being promoted into a Chief Inspector. Atsuko is also pretty emotional, even with good control over her temper she’s not really good with other negative emotions. Also, she’s highly self-conscious about what other people thinks of her.

Her primary interests over the past years are drawing, Japanese pop culture, video games, and the internet. She’s been drawing things since she was a kid and has gotten pretty good at it. Like, Pixiv-top-five-monthly-level good. She picked up cosplaying in undergraduate years but is not too confident about it. She likes video games, and has some friends who are pretty good gamers. She’d say that she’s also a gamer chick to girls like Karin Hofmann or Marielle Dubois but despite all of her enthusiasm, she actually sucks at it most of the times.

## Abilities

* **Martial Arts:** As a Police Officer, Atsuko was trained in Karate and Judo. Atsuko earned her Judo 4th degree black-belt in 2012 and Karate 4th degree black-belt in 2014
* **Scientific Research:** Atsuko is an internationally renowned Forensic Chemist with deep understanding of her field of expertise
* **Driving:** Atsuko was trained to drive both cars and motorcycles on the level that allows her to engage in criminal pursuit situation
* **Drawing:** Atsuko started drawing since very young age. Atsuko had participated in major comic conventions such as the Comic Market (Comiket), Jump Festa, Otakon, and NY Comic Con and sold an average of hundreds of copies each time.

## Relationships

### Family

* **Unnamed Father:** Father
* **Unnamed Mother:** Mother
* **Aina Kato:** Younger Sister
* **Naohiko Kato:** Younger Brother

## Trivia

* The first letter in Atsuko's name, '惇' means 'kindness/be kind'
* Atsuko's theme music is 'The Bravery' by supercell