Fornax

*"I can tell you have special... shall we say... talents that have never been used. How lonely is that? And so, I traveled long and far on behalf of all to use what you have for our own machinations. It's the will of our creator."*

— Fornax, chapter 1.
**Fornax** (フォーナックス *Fonakkusu*) is one of the antagonists of Heirloom Star; a native of Lampetia and member of the Cirque du Peur. She is the first of the team to be completely healed from her injuries sustained in the first generation battle and awaken from petrification.

## Appearance

The incarnation of the constellation Fornax takes the form of a humanoid teenage girl with a lanky build and stands at the same height as Yumemi. She has curly shoulder-length dark blue hair with pink streaks (usually worn in corkscrew pigtails) and large indigo eyes. Her standard wardrobe consists of a light purple and pink-striped hat, a indigo nehru jacket with lace and off-white epaulettes, white gloves, fishnet stockings and dark leather hotpants, connected to knee-length boots with a garter belt.

Her constellation mark is on her left cheek, decorated with a vine flourish.

## Personality

Fornax comes off for the most part as a loud, gullible and narcissistic girl and possesses a large personality; however, she often surprises others with her craftiness and street smarts in spite of her apparent airheadedness. She prefers the company of her teammates Norma, Reticuli and Caelum (despite her claiming to not like them), the latter becoming her romantic partner later on in the series. Her motive for joining the Cirque du Peur was to provide a better world for her younger brothers, and she takes her part as a member of the team very seriously. She has a vast approximate knowledge of human culture and is usually the one explaining to her other teammates what Earthlings find relevant (usually to Caelum). In spite of this, she remains ignorant of certain fundamental information, as evidenced in her first interaction with Yumemi when she becomes confused after the former mentions she's looking for a birthday card.

She is also a co-leader of the Navire Team, alongside Microscopii and the team's de facto leader, Circinus.

## Biography

A Lampetia native born in the country of Aries, Fornax first appears in the second chapter of the novel's first volume, taking the place of an employee of a small mall shop to search for Lepus. She comes into contact with Yumemi, who came to the store looking for a birthday present for Tomomi, and is able to access her personal information by compromising her credit card (all the while pretending to drop it behind the payment counter). Through this, she finds out where Yumemi lives and discovers that she was born under the protection of the constellation Lepus with additional help from a crystal shard given to her by Norma, as revealed in subsequent chapters of the novel. She manages to send a phony email to Yumemi under the guise of a mall newsletter advertising a storewide 75% off sale and succeeds in locking her in the empty mall. Then she reveals herself to her and makes a vague indication of abilities Yumemi has that need to be taken and used for the Cirque du Peur's benefit. When Yumemi refuses to cooperate, Fornax sends her Alpha Star Spirit to take her power by force, but Yumemi runs away. Using her Beta Star Spirit, she traps Yumemi and goes into slightly more detail about her power over the stars and another constellation (Lepus) who has her same power but has now gone missing. Due to these developments, Fornax tried to search for Lepus and found out about Yumemi in the process. She tries again to take her power, but Yumemi eludes her and unsuccessfully attempts to escape the mall, but the tension is broken when Lepus appears, attacking Fornax's Beta Star Spirit with Orion's Throne and knocking Fornax herself unconscious.

After she wakes up, she immediately heads back to Lampetia and informs Segin, Aganju castle's sentry, of her findings, expression her concerns about a human possessing powers normally bestowed to a constellation and "other teams" seeing an opportunity in indoctrinate her to join their forces. Segin leaves her alone in the castle, and the scene ends with Fornax asking, "Do you know what a 'birthday' is?"

## Powers

As a Cirque du Peur member, Fornax represents the team's fire perfomer, with some slight overlap as a tiger tamer given the forms her Star Spirits take on. Her main weapon in the novel is a riding crop, while in the animated series she uses this in conjunction with a meteor hammer. She also possesses the ability to travel through and become shadows and has a natural talent for adopting different personalities as part of her civilian masquerades.

## Etymology

Fornax is a faint constellation in the southern sky (known as the White Tiger of the West in Chinese mythology), with only one named star (Dalim, or Alpha Fornacis). The constellation's name is Latin for "furnace" and is represented by a brazier or chemical furnace. Her civilian alias Roza Chemica is derived from the kanji reading of the constellation she represents and its original Latin name, *Fornāx Chemica*.

Her designated task before joining the Cirque du Peur was a conglomerate between an herb doctor, gardener, blacksmith and druggist, as a nod to not only the object her constellation represents, but also the Roman goddess of the same name.

## Trivia

* She is the focus character of the animated series' second ending theme.