Inca Kasugatani

**Inca Kasugatani** (因（イン）果（カ） 春（カ）日谷（スガタニ）, *Inka Kasugatani*) is the Fifth Pillar and a former member of the White-Clad. Before joining, she was famously reputed across the Tokyo for being a Fire Thief, saving people from fires in exchange for their goods. Due to her rare ability to predict the pathway of flames via its scent. After awakening her Adolla Burst, in doing so, activated her pyrokinetic abilities and became a Third Generation.

## Appearance

Inca is a young woman with short pink hair, pink eyes and a thin yet voluptuous build. When using her Ignition Ability, her pupils changes into a strange five point star-like symbol. Whilst at school, she wore a standard school uniform that consisted of a dark a knee-length skirt, and a long-sleeve light shirt with a dark ribbon on the collar. During her escapades of thievery, Inca would don a dark jumper with eye-like circles on the hoodie, matched with a checker-board patterned scarf to hide her face.

 Two years ago, during the Great Fire, she wore a light t-shirt with the words "乱DMC" in the middle, and dark grey shorts, and brown sandals.

As a member of the White Clad, she wore a sleeveless puffy white onesie, with a darkly colored fabric under the white outer layer. She wore white sandal-like shoes that covers the majority of her feet, except her toes and heels, and she had golden circlets around her biceps and neck, as well as a black and gold crown-like object on her head. The most noticeable feature was her huge padded sleeves.

## Personality

Two years ago, Inca had little purpose in life and actually wished for herself to spontaneously combust. However, during the Great Fire while she was surrounded by the flames and witnessed lives burn away in a hopeless situation, she felt a strong desire to be alive, even so far as feeling exhilarated rather than despair in the presence of the terror of the flames.

Now, while Inca values life above all else and claims living is more important than anything else. It is her own life she values most and is generally indifferent about the lives of others, seeing them more as tools for her own ends. Inca is greedy, narcissistic, selfish and a thrill-seeker. She believes that people should give their valuables to her willingly as she is helping to save their lives. She has a borderline fetishistic obsession with danger and an apparent invincibility complex due to being able to see and dodge any attack from fire or heat before it happens. Claiming to only feel alive when in danger and cheating death, Inca is an adrenaline junkie that despises the idea of a world without the sensation of danger or death defying circumstances. She will recklessly place herself into possibly fatal disasters to feel a rush of excitement and loves when chaos emerges out of peace, embracing rather than fearing it. The fact that she has no regard for the law or lives of others, only willing to save people for personal profit, shows high degree of narcissism, as well as her very little regard for her own safety strongly indicate that Inca is a sociopath.

Selfish at times, Inca originally was willing to risk her life to save her friends. However, Inca will chase after her own desires more than anything, being highly indifferent about what they cost. She has expressed extreme distaste to abiding by rules and doing what others tell her to do, wanting to make decisions for herself. She desperately values her own freedom more than anything else and hates people trying to make choices for her, and has gone so far as killing friends should they attempt to stop her from exercising it. Ironically, her love of danger and abilities created a sense of destiny and fate that she strongly believes in. This deterministic idealism formed due to the presence of her powers, particularly when they chose to appear and work to their fullest. This strong belief and her selfishness have appeared to absolve her of any sense of responsibility for her choices and actions, which only furthers her danger seeking obsession.

While she resists the various attempts to recruit her or take her into protective custody, Inca concludes that being protected and living a safe, but boring life is her greatest fear. She views living a lifestyle where she knows she could lose her life at any moment as the ultimate thrill, a life so exciting that nothing can top it. It is in this pursuit of selfish fulfilment, that she willingly allies herself with the Evangelist in order to feel an even greater sense of danger that the other side cannot offer her. Her excitement is almost flirtatious when Shinra promises to chase her as an enemy rather than trying to help her.

After the Cataclysm and being brought back from death, Inca realized it wasn't what she thought it would be. She has reverted to a more realistic person. Inca is very cheerful, flirtatious and outgoing. Wanting a new goal, she fell in love with Shinra because he is the reason she was able to experience death and now wants to live a life where she doesn't die and to experience many things. She is very forward with her feelings and remarks such as calling out Arthur for being a loser and wanting to make babies with Shinra, exclaiming she wants him to continue chasing her further showing she still holds her thrill for adrenaline and danger, but to a lesser extent.

## Background

During the Great Fire in Tokyo in Year 196, Inca witnessed firsthand the destruction of the flames. At the time, she had little purpose in life, but after feeling exhilarated in the presence of the flames, gained a passionate desire to live. Shortly after, she started making her way away from the flames so not to get hurt, but on the way, discovered that she had awoken the ability to sense the path flames will take before they occur through the form of scent, which led her to easily avoid the flames and escape the disaster. It is known that Inca used to get annoyed with her father very often, the same way Charon gets on Haumea's nerves, but he had passed away before she got over it.

Despite losing a lot during the Great Fire, she used her new-found power with Panda and Sancho to rescue people immediately from house-fires in exchange for their valuables, leading to her becoming famous across Tokyo for being a Fire thief. She is known to get to fire scenes before fire fighters.

## Abilities

Two years ago, Inca acquired the ability to detect the pathway that heat will take via her sense of smell, leading to categorizing herself as a Fourth Generation. These abilities allowed her to know how fires will spread, explosions will trigger and how ignition abilities will act. She could even dodge attacks from Charon by tracking the thermal energy stored in his body and kicks from Shinra with ease. Two years later, Inca fully awakened her Ignition Ability and her Adolla Burst. In addition to being able to see the pathways of flames, she was able to trigger explosions by running her fingers across the air. The weakness of this attacks was that Inca cannot choose when these invisible pathways appear, meaning she is defenseless if they do not appear. She can also create path waves of fire by running her finger aside from explosions.

### Adolla Burst

As the Fifth Pillar, Inca possessed both the Adolla Burst and the Adolla Link. Through the Adolla Link, Inca is able to sense the strong emotions of others who have experienced that Adolla and transmit them to other users of the Adolla. She was also able to predict when another user of the Adolla Burst is about to awaken.

## Plot

### Fifth Pillar arc

While walking with her classmates, Inca smells an upcoming fire and excuses herself. With a burst of energy, she sprints to a park where she meets with Panda and Sancho. Inca tells them she hopes the victim will be a rich person. After explaining to Panda that her abilities awoke in the Great Fire two years ago in exchange for losing a lot, they all don their masks and prepare for their harvest time. Inca manages to break into a man's house as soon as a fire suddenly breaks out in his home. He begs her for help - to which Inca has no problem with, but only if he makes it worth her while by providing something of value. After giving her his savings, she and the guys get him out of the house uninjured. As the fire fighters arrive, a crowd gathers and notice that the Fire Thief has struck again. Back at the park, Inca greedily states that she's splitting the money into a 60/20/20 share in her favor. Sancho then questions her ability, and Inca goes on to say that she's neither a Second Generation nor a Third Generation due to not being able to create or manipulate flames, making her the first of a kind Fourth Generation. Suddenly, the First Pillar appears behind her, stating that plenty of danger will be coming her way very soon. Startled, Inca wonders who the woman was, and then grips onto her skirt as she sniffs out a new danger.

Running toward it with a smile on her face, she sees multiple huge rays of light shining from the ground, getting excited about the fact that many fires are about to occur all over Tokyo. While overlooking the many fires, Inca thinks this amount of victims will make them the largest amount of money, but both Panda and Sancho step back from the situation and try to stop Inca from endangering herself. A large man suddenly appears behind the trio, exclaiming that Inca must be the Fifth Pillar. A confused Inca is left speechless and Sancho tries to pull Charon away, but Inca sees a line going through Sancho's chest. Before they knew it, Charon as killed him. With a heavily beating heart and finding it hard to breathe from the anxiety, Inca is told that she will become used to death working for the waiting Evangelist. After asking why Charon needs her, Inca's Third Generation powers awaken and she follows a thread with her fingers, from the 'Start' to the 'Goal' and creates an explosion. Charon, after being hit with multiple explosions, realizes Inca has awakened her Third Generation powers while flames sprouting from what seems to be thin air to the average person. Inca tells Panda to run and then leads Charon away from her friend and into the city. Still confused, she manages to dodge Charon's various attempts to grab her and continues her barrage of explosions against him. Inca spots a thread coming from the skies and landing on Charon, upon which Shinra arrives and knees Charon in the face. Shinra exclaims the 8th Company will protect her, leaving her ever more baffled, but also sarcastically displeased. She watches as the two start fighting each other, much in Charon's favor.

After collecting her thoughts, Inca expresses her disinterest in joining either of them, stating she makes her own decisions. Refusing Charon's attempts to trap her in a life without freedom due to her Adolla Burst and Shinra's offer of protection because it would only lead to a boring life without any thrills. Agitated with the situation, she sees a cluster of multiple threads and doesn't hesitate to start waves of explosions to cover her escape from both the Fire Soldier and White Clad. She is eventually captured by Charon's gang, demanding to be cut lose while also yelling at Shinra to let her escape on her own, leaving Shinra confused. She once again expresses her disinterest in not joining either parties or a boring life. A tied up Inca watches as Shinra is beaten down by Charon. She watches the battle unfold and sees the giant shadow of Shinra's Hellfire before it finally actives and blasts Charon out of the way. Though this proves in effective as Charon is able to get back up and bring Shinra to his knees. With the fight going poorly, the White Clads prepare to withdraw after the Fire Force manages to kill a Demon Infernal and Haumea is in danger. Shinra tells her to use her powers to break free, but Inca notices that she can't see any threads to create explosions with. She concludes that this means she is fated to join the White Clads. She thinks introspectively about her possible fates. Joining the Fire Force would lead to her having to pay for her crimes, but would be a life of security. She then pictures herself being left dismembered and beaten as the end result of staying with the Evangelist's side, much to her arousal, and being her final thought before telling the goons to take her with them. She understands that she'll run into more danger with the White Clads, much to Shinra's disapproval.

Shinra highlights the number of people who have died in this event because of this cultists and that she is throwing her life away. Inca states that she doesn't care about others' lives and that she actually does care about her own; thinking of life as precious and only worth living through the fear of losing it. Shinra tries to punch her but ends up knocking down the goon holding her before getting punched away by Charon. Shinra, outraged by this selfishness promises to hunt Inca down for this, promising to kill her, to which she blushes and says that that's a much better option than him protecting her, and that she'll wait for him, much to Shinra's confusion. Leaving with Charon. She meets Haumea for the first time, noting her electrical aura that could hurt her with a touch. Panda manages to find them and tries to avenge his brother's death and protect Inca from this people. Inca feels confused about the situation, almost hesitant, unsure of how to react. Eventually, she sees the thread of flames locked around Panda's figure, and the next action was almost inevitable; she burns her friend alive, burning her old life away in the process as she walks away with the White Clads having joined them.

### VS. Holy Sol Temple arc

After joining the White-Clad, Inca was shocked after being informed that Jonah impersonated Raffles I in order to create the The Holy Sol Temple two hundred and fifty years ago.

### Haijima Industries arc

While Company 8 break into Haijima Industries Skills Development Laboratory to secure Nataku, Inca arrives order to take in the Sixth Pillar having foresaw his awakening. Though she is both confused why Charon is with him and not Haumea, in which he states that she's annoyed with him and so has joined Inca instead despite Inca not wanting him around either. Inca's Guardian, Ritsu, tells Charon that the Guardian-Pillar duo don't need him for protection. Inca tells Charon that the boy under Kurono's grip is the Sixth Pillar, and Charon leaps down to capture him. Inca gets excited as she watches events unfold. Soon after, she casually greets Shinra, much to his surprise, and then gets told off by Ritsu for leaning too far off the ledge of the building. The Pillar says that stuff isn't worth getting worked up over, as she then spots various fire threads happening across Tokyo.

As they watch the fray from atop, Ritsu asks what they should do. Inca tells her to wait a little, as after a while there will be casualties and that will allow Ritsu to use her ability more effectively. Later on, Inca stops Arthur and Shinra from running away with the Sixth Pillar through her explosions. Eventually, Inca orders Ritsu to take actions and the maid creates a powerful Giant Infernal to store Nataku inside of it. However, Nataku's radiation rays are still active and he becomes a danger to all sides as a result of Haumea's actions.

During Nataku's rampage, Inca sees a thread of fire going through Ritsu and moves her lightly to save her from death. Inca then praises Haumea for using Nataku's abilities to create such a dangerous situation for everyone, including themselves. As Nataku falls deeper and deeper into despair at the hands of Haumea and his own deep-rooted issues, Inca foresees a huge blast of fire from the Infernal, with the power to create a 500km crater on the surface, frightening even her. As the Infernal fires the ray, Charon steps in and exclaims his position as Guardian, and his aim to protect all Pillars, even Shinra; and so uses his Second Generation powers to withstand the beam and store the energy. Once Nataku releases a blast capable of levelling the entire Tokyo Empire, Charon eventually manages to redirect the beam upwards. Saving the Empire much to everyone's amazement, including Inca's, while leaving a crater in the moon. Kurono sees the Infernal, and realizing it is too strong, takes it down efficiently, surprising Inca and Ritsu in how strong he must be to take down such an Infernal. The White Clads regroup, as Charon is worn out from redirecting the beam, and they decide to leave the Sixth Pillar with Haijima for the time being. Inca puts on a sadistic smile, and looks at Nataku, noting that although he may stay for now, she sees his future, and they all disappear.

### Ōbi's Rescue arc

Wanting to change Tokyo to its rightful state, Inca joins Haumea in leading a group of White-Clad to Holy See. Taking control of Raffles III's mind, Haumea has him summon Leonard Burns. Upon him arriving with Company 1's priests and the group revealing their presence, Inca watches Haumea persuade Leonard in serving the Evangelist with them.

She later attacks company 8 and watches in surprise as Benimaru arrives to save them. being shocked when he is able to dodge her ability. She then retreats with the White-Clad.

### Stone Pillars arc

Inca is shown in the Evangelist headquarters walking down a hall when she runs into Sho. She asks him how he is but he brushes her off after she tells him where Haumea is. Later Inca excitedly watches Haumea perform her ritual and tells Ritsu she cannot wait to feel the pain when they all die.

When Shinra enters his Adolla Link. Inca arrives. She teases him and asks him where they are. When Shinra asks her about the cataclysm, she tells him its only just started and that even she doesn't know what will happen. In order to find out what really happened 250 years ago, Inca decides to travel with Shinra into the past and hops onto his back. Inca tells him he will fall in love with her, which he doesn't believe. Shinra and Inca are then sent 250 years into the past, to the time of the Great Cataclysm.

### Great Cataclysm arc

Inca was sacrificed along with Sister Sumire by Haumea, burning the two when she held their hand as the Saint.

At the end of the battle, she now desires to live rather than die because the value of living decreased. She became Shinra's girlfriend and is being chased by him. In her meeting with Shinra, she desires his seed to make a baby, rather than be with Shinra.

## Etymology

* The name **Inca** means "causal/causality, cause and effect, karma, fate" (因果), which links to her lifestyle, in that she chose to side with the White-Clad because she felt it was her fate.
	+ There are several characters in *Fire Force*whose names are allusions to or directly taken from both monotheistic and pantheistic religions and notable religious figures.
		- The English translation of her name is identical to the famous Inca Empire. The empire's religion centered on the Sun God Inti and practiced human sacrifice, both key elements of the White Clad and the role of the Eight Pillars with the Fire Force universe.
* Inca's surname **Kasugatani** means "spring" (春) (**ka**), "sun, day" (日) (**suka**/**suga**) and "valley" (谷) (**tani**).

## Trivia

* Inca's hood greatly resembles Medusa's costume from the *Soul Eater* series.
* Inca is one of Atsushi Ohkubo, the author's favorite characters.
* Inca placed 18th in the second English popularity poll and 8th in the second Japanese popularity poll.
* Inca's personality to like being in danger shows that she had a masochist personality.
* According to her Character Profile in Volume 18:
	+ She is self-proclaimed, "the Fire Scene Zeni Geba."
	+ She doesn't really have any favorite foods. Her least favorite food are meals eaten with a lot of people. She wants to eat alone.
	+ Her favorite music is whatever is currently popular.
	+ She does not have a favorite animal as she doesn’t really like them.
	+ Favorite color: Is there a difference? They all kinda look the same.
	+ Favorite type: Ikemen? I don’t really know
	+ Who she respects: Of course I don’t have any (LOL), that kind of thing
	+ She hates pretty much everyone.
	+ Who she’s afraid of: Humans are scary
	+ She doesn't really have any hobbies.
	+ Daily routine: I just do whatever I want to do that day
	+ Dream: For the time being, I’m just collecting money
	+ Her shoe size is 24.
	+ Her eyesight: "I can see a lot of things, so I’ve never measured it seriously."
	+ Favorite subject: None
	+ Least favorite subject: First of all, I hate school

## References

1. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 100
2. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 139
3. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 99, Page 19
4. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 102, Page 8
5. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 100, Page 7