Katja "Ghost" Nikula

### Likes

Uncovering secrets, Her juniors whom she treats as "younger siblings", Detective and Mystery novels

### Dislikes

Being denied the truth, being called an "old hag, traditionalist magi (especially her family)

## Magic

### Principle

Stillness

**Katja "Ghost" Nikula** is an agent of the Snake Tong, and the Lieutenant and leader of Unit 8 , or the Cloak and Dagger Unit, specializing in assassination and shock operations. Once the scion for the Nikula Dynasty from the Grand Order of Magi and the Covenant of Louhi, a young Katja escaped the life of aristocracy and became a freelancer before arriving in the Philippines and being recruited into the Tong for her skills. She was responsible for rescuing and recruiting both Mao "Stray Cat" Ligao and Ricardo "Cards" Berani, and would later become the leader of Unit 8 after years of service. A deadly magus in battle, she has racked up a reputation for sending a ghostly chill down the spines of her foes.

## Background

Born the heir of the Nikula Clan, an old lineage of magi that served the Covenant of Louhi for centuries, and prime players in the Covenant Courts and Order politics. As the second in line to the leadership of the clan, Katja was raised strictly by her family. Many of the Noble families of the Order intermarry, to create the perfect leader, the perfect body, the perfect mind, the perfect magus. A standard that young Katja tried to uphold. In her younger years she served her family dutifully, honing herself to be a great mage. This meant that every perceived flaw, every aberration must be hidden, or eradicated. Katja kept followed every expectation, save for one. She preferred the company of women, not men, and was very open about it, mingling with her peers in the Order. This was seen as less than ideal by her family, to say the least. Her parents perceived who she was as mere "childish whim of rebellion", and was expected to marry the son of another family. What she thought was the one thing that she'd be free to do, what she thought her family would understand was treated as nothing more than something shameful and deviant that has to be rid of. Out of desperation, when Katja refused to put on a show, marry the man, keep anything 'unsavory' private and locked away, a plan was made to alter her mind and make her more "acceptable". A risky procedure , but the very fact that her parents would even take the risk plunged the dagger deeper inside her heart. She learned of this before it could unfold and left.

She went East, where Order influence was weak, and carved out an existence as a freelancer for half a decade before encountering the Shiai-shi in Southern China. Katja saw the benefit of joining a group instead of going solo, and her decision was influenced by the fact she learned about Fenghuang and was quoted saying "She's the kind of leader I can get behind, figuratively and literally". After passing the trials and taking the oath, she was assigned to Unit 8, one of the specialized assassination squads, thanks to her honed skills in combat as a freelancer. She only ever checked up on the news of her family once, when she learned that a new heir has been made for the Nikula line. She never looked back since. She met Gjerta Toksvig after joining Unit 8, a former Veilsister from the Arcane Order, on the run after being exiled and was on a mission for revenge, and the Unit just so happened to target the same mage Gjerta was after. The two quickly bonded over their woes with the Order, and their mutual interests, eventually blossoming into a relationship and resulting in Gjerta joining the Snakes, specifically Unit 8 after Katja and the others helped her avenging her men.

During her career with the Snakes, she met a woman disowned by her mage family due to her becoming pregnant with the child not of her betrothed, and a woman who desperately worked hard to provide for her daughter. This woman struck a deal with the Snakes to work for them in their artificer workshops, in exchange, they would watch after her daughter in case something would happen to her. Katja pitied the woman and was the one who kept the promise. As the woman died of health complications from using too much magical drugs to fuel her heavy workload, Katja took the young daughter under her wing, and was given a new name as she was adopted into the Snake Tong, Mao Ligao. Shortly after, she and the rest of Unit 8 partook in assaulting a Balete's workshop in the city of Agihan, eliminating their target mage, looting the place, and rescuing the sole survivor of the Balete mage's experiments, a boy named Ricardo Berani. And thus, another child was adopted into Unit 8, and he would also be trained as a future agent of the Tong. Katja proudly thought them everything they knew and became an older sister-figure to them, caring but at the same-time a strict teacher.

Mao and Cards graduating from strays to be fully fledged agents thanks to Katja made her a candidate for becoming a lieutenant, and she eventually did took over leadership of Unit 8, and remains so to this day. Charismatic and an expert of assassination tactics, she led her team through many successful missions, and also trained newcomers in the ways of the Cloak and Dagger style. And when Cards expressed his new-found revelation and goals to Katja, she gave her full support the moment she saw the resolve in his eyes. He even influenced her to an extent, as she recently opened a more peaceful way of earning income and opening a café in Agihan City called "Kaperkele" , a popular place for Finnish Coffee and food, and eventually became a Snake hangout.

## Personality

Katja subverts a serious and almost heartless attitude underneath a surface of a care-free and whimsical woman. Although she is both laid-back and ruthless, the latter is mostly her dominant personality. She only shows her serious side when on a mission requiring her to look the part of a cold and efficient assassin. Most of the time, she is a nosy, troublemaking, ball of mischief, who likes to tease those around her. She is rather fond of her juniors, especially those in her team. She was an only child when she was still with her family and always wanted younger siblings. As the leader of Unit 8, she has developed many tactics tailored to the specializations of her team, and has been known to pull off a lot of impressive feats thanks to their coordination. She instills this sense of loyalty to her team, not only as fellow agents, but as a family in a sense, since she considered the Tong her true family who judged her for her skills, not for who she was as a person.

One of Katja's defining traits is his confidence. She is proud of magical abilities and fighting skills, with the experience to back it up. Thus confidence can sometimes come across as arrogance, but it is also part of what makes him an effective leader for Unit 8. Such confident charisma lets her have a way with words that can inspire or persuade others, combined with that ever-present grin of hers.

Katja's sharp wit and a dry sense of humor greatly influenced her juniors, such as Mao or Cards, thanks to constant "tests of wit" whenever the Unit chills out and shares banter. It's not exclusive to lighthearted interactions, as Katja uses her dry humor as a defense mechanism, often making jokes to avoid difficult emotions or conversations. She is also responsible for the rather... colorful swearing and choice of language her juniors have learned.

She was and still is unapologetic about her sexuality. She took a casual approach to relationships and sex in her youth. However, the reality is that her snarky behavior is a coping mechanism which she used to hide insecurities, and in fact she desires nothing more than a committed, monogamous relationship with someone she loved, something she only achieved after meeting Gjerta. Her worried side also appears whenever her loved ones, which extends to her former and current members of Unit 8, are put into more danger than she is used to. While she doesn't show it, as she trained herself to not show fear as much as possible, she can sometimes snap at Gjerta or Cards if they frightened her with recklessness.

She loves a good Mystery story, and has amassed a large collection of detective novels, from Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, and has kept them in her café for customers to read for free, although she is very strict and wouldn't hesitate to chase down and sternly scold (with hints of violence) anyone who tries to steal one of her books.

Her ruthless side commonly comes out during combat, reflected by her chosen style of martial arts, Teräskäsi, a pragmatic and violent style that emphasized swift and brutal takedowns, and she shows no remorse to magi from the Order who she knows have unshakable beliefs in the aristocratic culture of Grand Order magi. She shows great disdain for the snobby nobles and what she calls "inhuman" magi of not just the Order, but mage organizations in general.

A fluent speaker in multiple languages throughout the years, Katja was quick to pick up the many dialects of Filipino thanks to her time with the Tong, alongside her native Finnish and her English.

## Abilities

### Martial Arts

Katja is a master of **Teräskäsi or "Iron Hand"**, a fighting style used by the Nikula for centuries, a highly violent martial art that involves brutal strikes and agile maneuvers complimented by combat magic such as Reinforcement. Amplifying the strength and durability of one's body makes them a dangerous weapon at close-range, and and a mage caught off-guard or untrained in close-quarters-combat will quickly find themselves assaulted with might and magic. She also combines different techniques she picked up from other styles throughout her time with the Snake Tong, and has become a deadly fighter because of it, even without her main magic. She is also the primary teacher for **Teräskäsi** and has trained Unit 8 and other interested members of the Tong in her style.

### Magic

**Kummituskäsi, or "Ghost Hand"** is the magic that the Nikula developed as a weapon and as a tool. As a weapon, her touch drains heat in the air, on an object, or from a body. This allows her to quickly freeze whatever she touches, assuming these targets have no countermeasures against heat manipulation. She developed a particular variation to this during her time in the Shiai-shi, in which her touch could carefully freeze the body fluids of a target, such as blood, allowing for a more stealthy kill. She can also manipulate water and ice with basic elemental magic, which she uses for utility.

The main purpose of the Kummituskäsi, however, is to be tool. a conduit for the Principle of "Stillness", which Katja has mastered over the decades. Like the freezing of ice, with enough concentration and mana, Katja can apply the concept of Stillness to things she has frozen. This does not mean the enemy's movements are forced to stand still, but also more metaphysical concepts like "Recovery", or "Thoughts", the former used to pause an opponent's ability to heal wounds or catch their breath from fatigue, and the latter used for stunning or disorienting opponents. A dangerous and versatile tool, Katja reserves the technique for certain situations that require more than just an icy touch.

### Equipment

**Snake Key**

Katja's Snake Key is a combat Bowie knife. The blade itself was made with special materials that are not necessarily strong enough for heavy combat. The pride of the Pranaja Empu smiths, the steel during forging blessed the property to disperse mana. Since it disperses magical energy, the blade of the knife can't be reinforced with magic. However, the reason why it's named a key is because users can create holes within certain points of a Bounded Field. Since the blade merely disperses mana and not outright destroys it, it creates thinned and weakened areas in a Bound Field that is more susceptible of being bypassed physically without triggering an alarm for the owner.

It can also be used against an enemy using Reinforcement on his body. If the Key is stabbed onto the target's arm, for example, the magical energy of the reinforcement spell disperses to other parts of his body and his arm is now more weakened thanks to the lower amount of mana for reinforcement.

**S11 'BB' Bulletproof Body Suit**

Standard issue magic armor that Snake Tong provides its members. It is a black suit which was made to be bulletproof (tested with 9mm, 7.62, NATO/.308) and provides magic resistance, dispelling low level spells. It is considered to be one of the iconic uniforms of the Shiai-shi. The suit is made with a composite of multiple magical materials, a major one being Huohuan Bu Silk from a Spider Yaoguai. This makes the Suit durable (enough to withstand modern gunfire and magical projectiles), easily enchantable with magic, and has innate fire resistance. If the Suit was stained, one simply needs to burn the area with the stain and the mess will soon disappear without damaging the cloth

Katja's suit is a white variant, which she started using after becoming the leader of Unit 8.

**"Shroud Ties"**

Shroud Ties are standard issue magic armor and head protection, cleverly disguised as neckties that allow them to blend in with the Bulletproof Snake suit style. By pulling down the tie and channeling mana through them, the ties transform into balaclava masks that provide full coverage of the head and neck. The material is made to be as bulletproof as the suits and also provide the same magical protection. The Shroud Tie can be deactivated by the user removing the mask, and it will turn back into their necktie forms.

Katja has the standard issue black mask with a white skull design for intimidation.