Nae Kogure

* Manga
* Anime

## Name

**Nae Kogure** (木暮苗, *Kogure Nae*) is a major character of Mermaid Saga, appearing in the story "Promised Tomorrow".

## Biography

She was born in the Kogure family who holds mermaid ashes in a storehouse due to a legend involving her ancestors and the small village she lives in.

According to that legend, a traveling nun came to the village and offered those ashes, as a medicine that can make trees and grass grow, to her ancestors as gratitude for having been hospitable to her. A legend behind that legend says the nun spent the night in a house in the village but was murdered by the master of the house who stole her ashes, but some of the ashes remained on her corpse which caused her to come back to life and crawl out of her grave but she had become a soulless demon and murdered one villager after another then ran and hid in the mountains, and after a few years, the effect of the ashes wore off and she turned back into a corpse.

At one point, Nae took a little of the mermaid ashes that was being kept in a storehouse and sprinkled it in a field of red flowers which thus bloom bright red all year long, never wilting even in the dead of winter. She would call that field "Red Valley" and it would be her secret place also known only to the child of one of her family’s servants called Sōkichi whom she shares her secrets with, including about the legend despite being told by her father that it’s a family secret, for he knows how to keep secrets.

Around 60 years ago, she was engaged to an imperial university student named Eijirō, and met Yūta who was living and working as a carpenter in the village, for she heard that he was looking for a mermaid. She showed him Red Valley where she reveals the legend and how she sprinkled mermaid ashes in the field, to which Yūta responds that humans shouldn’t use things that come from a mermaid, so she buried the ashes in a mountain without telling her father.

The two would meet in private using a signal which consists of having 3 small stones behind a Dōsojin and Yūta removing the middle stone to indicate that he can meet her and leaving it to indicate that he can’t meet her. She fell in love with Yuta and pleaded him to take her with him when he leaves to continue his search for a mermaid, to which he answers that he can’t. However the day Yuta leaves, she found the middle stone removed behind the Dōsojin so rejoiced at the thought of meeting Yūta at Red Valley and leaving with him, but it was actually Eijirō who removed the middle stone and angry at her betrayal strangles her to death. Her disappearance caused a commotion in the village and a funeral was performed without her body, since it was never found as it was buried in the Red Valley and remained perfectly preserved over the years.

2 years ago, Eijirō found the mermaid ashes she hid in the mountain and pour them on her dead body which reanimated her although she became a shadow of her former self with no memory of her past. While being kept by Eijirō in her family's mansion he came to own, she would often try to leave as she feels that she has to go somewhere, only to be always stopped and brought back by Eijirō's men. Although mostly calm, she becomes disturbed by the cawing of birds and would go into murderous trances.

In her latest fleeing attempt, Nae is pursued by dogs and smacked by one of Eijirō's men at a construction site, where she encounters Mana who happens to pass by while she was wandering off on her own as Yūta returned to visit Nae's grave, and tries to tackle the man to help her only for her to be smacked herself, although she bashes the man's head in with a large rock, but two other men of Eijirō show up then and bring her back to the mansion together with Mana whom they kill and bury.

The next day, at a balcony of the mansion, she interacts with Mana who resurfaced and asks her if she is Nae to which she answers that she doesn’t know, then as the alarm goes on causing birds to fly and caw due to Yūta hopping in the mansion’s yard because Eijirō ordered his men to sever Mana's head, she goes into another murderous trance and picks a piece of window glass, but notices Yūta screaming for Mana in the yard, and both are shocked by recognition. Later during the night, she stabs two of Eijirō's men who were about to rape a tied up Mana with a knife then tells her that she remembered having made a promise to meet Yuta at Red Valley and leaves the mansion with Mana following her.

As the sun rises, the two girls reach a local park and two of Eijirō's men with a dog find them so Mana makes Nae run by grabbing her to not get caught, and they go through a department store where Nae stops at a beauty shop to see herself in a mirror and puts on a lipstick that she finds pretty to look good for Yuta, much to the annoyance of Mana who keeps pulling her as Eijirō's men are still on their tail. They reach a point in the hills where Nae appears happy realizing that they are almost reaching Red Valley until she becomes disturbed by another group of birds cawing, which confuses Mana who holds her trying to assure her it’s okay, and then Eijirō shows up telling her to come home with him but an angry Nae saying "No" bashes him in the head with a rock and continues walking with Mana, ignoring Eijirō's ranting that he brought her back to life. She is however thereafter stabbed in her right shoulder by Eijirō with a knife hidden in his cane, but she continues walking. As she eventually reaches Red Valley, she remembers that Yūta didn’t come and she was killed on that day, which together with birds cawing drives her to suffer a breakdown. Having removed the blade cane from her shoulder, she raises it as Yūta approaches her but drops it as he hugs her and embraces him as well. She happily expresses relief that he’s come and says that she woke up from a nightmare in which he didn’t come then fully rejoices as he tells her that they may leave the village together. Thereafter, the effect of the ashes would wear off just like in the other legend, leaving her to die once again in the red valley as her deathbed.

## Trivia

* Her seiyu also provided the voice of Tsukiyomi from *Inuyasha*.