Sofia Golden Hand/Story

Overview
**Story**
Gallery

## Background

Sofia was born in St. Petersburg to a Russian noble family and learned how to read and write Russian as well as speak the French language. As a chivalrous thief, Sofia would often commit crimes in order to fund her group's activities. Sometime in the past, Sofia became acquainted with Kiroranke and Wilk, the latter of whom she got to know well. She is also the mastermind behind the assassination of Russian emperor Alexander II. During her time with Wilk, he taught her all about the Ainu culture and that if they do not fight to protect them, then they will be lost and as a result, the children born in the future will never know about their heritage. He laments over the fate of the indigenous people of America and expresses his dream to create a far eastern federation that would include both Karafuto and Hokkaido Ainu.

One night, the revolutionaries were being chased by the secret police and they fled into a nearby forest, however one of their comrades had been seriously injured and fell unconscious as a result. The man then began to make groaning sounds, which would have given their position away, so Wilk took a knife out and cut his throat, much to the shock of Sofia and Kiroranke. Ever since then, Sofia began to trust and love Wilk from the bottom of her heart.

For over ten years since the death of Alexander II, Sofia, Wilk, and Kiroranke led a fugitive life until they arrived in Vladivostok where they hid in a farmhouse. They then meet a Japanese photographer named Kouichi Hasegawa and asked him to teach them Japanese, promising to pay him for the trouble. While Wilk and Kiroranke learned Japanese at a fast pace, Sofia showed no interest in the language and was barely able to utter a few words. Instead she seemed more fascinated in Hasegawa and Fina's child Olga as she held the baby with a smile on her face.

As Hasegawa prepares to take the revolutionaries' pictures, he begins to talk about the Three Great Nobles of the Restoration and afterwards, Sofia watches Wilk and Kiroranke take their horse out for a walk. Later, the three of them head to Hasegawa's store to begin their lesson, but he tells them not to come anymore and to leave immediately. Just then, they hear a knock on the door, which Hasegawa answers to see a Russian officer staring back at him. Hiding behind the wall, Wilk identifies the man as a member of Okhrana, a secret police force that cracks down on revolutionaries, and Kiroranke notices that they are surrounded. Sofia then takes her rifle and hits the officer with its butt, stunning him, which allowed Kiroranke to drag him inside to be interrogated by Wilk.

The officer does not know who they are and states that they only came to arrest the Japanese man, Hasegawa, who is revealed to be a spy for the Japanese army. Sofia and Wilk then engaged in a gunfight with the rest of Okhrana as Kiroranke uses Hasegawa's machine gun to kill the soldiers. As one soldier limps away, Wilk exclaims that not one of them should escape, lest he brings back more people with him. Hearing this, Sofia rushes out and manages to kill the lone survivor. She turns around and spots Fina lying on the ground, with blood coming out of her body.

As Sofia checks on both Fina and Olga, Hasegawa, Wilk, and Kiroranke approaches her and Hasegawa examines her, saying that she cannot be saved. Sofia cries over the baby and calls out Hasegawa's name but he tells them to hurry up and leave. When Wilk and Kiroranke prepares to cross over to Japan, Sofia decides to stay behind, saying that while she loves Wilk, she cannot get over Olga's death and that she does not need happiness as a woman, while continuing to fight as a revolutionary. Afterwards at some point in time, Sofia was arrested by the Russian government and thrown into Akou Prison in Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky despite there not being any evidence for her crime of assassinating Alexander II.

## Plot

### Border Crossing Arc

While being held in Akou Prison, Sofia is bound and whipped by a prison guard but she claims the torture was too gentle that she fell asleep before walking away.
Sometime afterwards, Sofia meets up with a young woman, Svetlana, and tells her that since she is still young, she should hurry up and get married so that she can leave the prison. Just then, a letter arrives for Sofia, which she smells for a faint scent of milk and held up above a candle light to reveal a hidden message from Kiroranke. Seeing it, Sofia gets excited at the thought of seeing Kiroranke again.

### Pet Monster Arc

Sofia and Kiroranke continues to exchange *milk letters* to each other and Sofia would consume the ink stand made out of bread whenever she sensed the presence of other people nearby. With some help from Kiroranke's companion Yoshitake Shiraishi as well as her own underlings, Sofia is given a package containing some Nivkh clothings that would help her to escape Akou Prison.

### Akou Prison Break Arc

In one of the letters that Kiroranke sent to Sofia, she finds out that Wilk had died and sheds some tears for the man she loved. Sofia also receives a letter stating the time when Kiroranke will execute the breakout plan.

Once nighttime had fallen, Sofia and her men pretends to be asleep until Kiroranke sets off an explosive at the walls of the prison. The explosion causes the guards and some of the prisoners to become alert but Sofia easily knocks one of the guards out by slamming her wheelbarrow into his face. A prisoner helps Sofia to remove the chains on her wrist, which allows Sofia to eliminate another guard. As Sofia and her men runs around the prison, knocking out some more guards, they look for the exit and manages to find one to go through. However, what was waiting for them was an Amur tiger that had been drawn by the sound of the explosion.

As the Amur tiger assaults the prisoners, Sofia comments that the wrong tiger had been waiting for them. When the tiger attempts to attack Sofia, some of her men jumps in between them so that they can distract it while Sofia makes her escape. However, Sofia prepares herself to fight as well, saying that a boss should not leave their men behind. As her men held the tiger down, Sofia puts a chain around its neck and attempts to straddle it. But the tiger suddenly jumps to the roof of a nearby building, causing Sofia to fall off it.

When one of Sofia's men prepares to shoot the tiger, Sofia stops him, saying that tigers are like gods to the Nanai people and that killing one will bring a lifetime of misfortune. Suddenly, another explosion goes off and the prisoners finds that another hole had been made in the wall elsewhere. As Sofia enters the hole, she sees a young Ainu girl and recognizes her clothes as being that of the Karafuto Ainu people. Upon seeing the girl's eyes, Sofia realizes that the girl is Wilk's daughter who has inherited his eyes and says her name, Asirpa. Kiroranke calls out to Sofia and begins to compliment her appearance but Sofia slaps him, angry at what he did to Wilk.

Asirpa's Group is stunned by what had happened but Kiroranke and Sofia just silently stares at each other before Sofia turns around to leave. As they cross the drift ice, Yoshitake Shiraishi notes that their plan worked perfectly as their disguise helps them to blend in with the Nivkh fisherman that had come out onto the ice for their hunt. Asirpa says that she wants Sofia to tell her about her father so Kiroranke translates as Sofia recounts her past with Wilk.

When Kiroranke points out a group of wolves that had come nearby to them, Sofia tells Asirpa that Wilk had always loved wolves and began to speak of a time when Wilk sacrificed one of their comrades in order to survive. She asks Kiroranke and Asirpa if they knew the origins of Wilk's name, but neither of them did so she tells them about how Wilk gained his name, saying that his name meant "wolf" in the Polish language.

Sofia and Kiroranke stares at the wolves that came near them when Kiroranke notices Ogata acting different but the latter denies it and says that they should hurry since the weather looks like it will get windy soon. Asirpa's Group is then separated from Shiraishi as the drift ice between them breaks and Shiraishi turns back to find a connected path that will let him catch up with them. The rest of the group decides to take shelter behind a large wall of ice and Sofia and Kiroranke gathers some ice to make the wall bigger while Asirpa and Ogata looks for some driftwood to burn.

They hear a gunshot off in the distance and Kiroranke decides to go and investigate the source of the sound, telling Sofia to stay at their position and to wait for Asirpa and the others to get back. With Kiroranke gone, Sofia calls out for Asirpa in the hope that she can hear her through the raging snowstorm. As Sofia waits for everyone to return, she hears a loud explosion going off elsewhere but she continues to remain silent.

### Return to Karafuto Arc

Some time later, Sofia finds that Kiroranke has died and been buried under blocks of drift ice. She removes a block to get one final look at Kiroranke's face and to say farewell before leaving his makiri knife on top of his grave.

### Return to Hokkaido Arc

At a Russian port town on the coast of the Sea of Japan, some of Sofia's men gets into a fight with a Japanese man named Maiharu Gansoku and has difficulty standing up to him so much so that Sofia decides to join in on the fun. Gansoku tries to avoid fighting her, but Sofia delivers several blows to Gansoku making him quickly change his mind. Sofia rips open her shirt and continues to fight Gansoku until Svetlana fires a gun into the air, asking Sofia not to break her bodyguard. Once things had calmed down, Sofia meets with Svetlana and Gansoku, telling the latter that she likes him and offers for him to come with her. However, Gansoku says that he and Svetlana wishes to head west to the Russian capital so that he will be able to fight plenty of strong people there. Svetlana asks Sofia where she will go, and she tells her that for the sake of her hopes and for her revenge, she will head to Hokkaido, Japan.