Illuminate

Kimi, Key-Chan (Nicknames)

Imako Takamoto (Daughter)

Yasu Takamoto (Son)

## **History**

### **Kimiyo Hoshi: 1985 - 2008**

Kimiyo Hoshi was born in Tokyo, Japan, as the daughter of scientist Jiro Hoshi and his wife Miya, an Olympic Swimmer. Before her second birthday, Kimiyo's mother had ran off with another man. In pursuit of trying to convince Miya to come back home, Jiro and Kimiyo were fortunately outside of the blast radius that claimed a large portion of Tokyo but close enough to the blast as to be affected by lingering intrinsic radiation (caused by a defect in the Tokyo bomb but thought to be a byproduct of Dr. Manhattan's powers).

A few weeks after the explosion, Kimiyo fell ill and was at the time mistakenly diagnosed with the "Manhattan Cancer". It was believed that a child so young would not live to see her teen years and the best solution was to simply make her comfortable while being the test subject of experimental treatments to buy her more time. Even this did not persuade Miya to come home and thus Jiro was left to put his career and research on the back-burner in order to care for Kimiyo. Though, Kimiyo admits that her father tried his best to be a good father, there was always something in his voice that made Kimiyo understand he resented her existence on some level. When Kimiyo responded well to medications, she tried her best to alleviate her father's stress and do all that she could to please him. Kimiyo took an interest in science so that he could take her to his lab in order to work on his precious research, but no matter what Kimiyo did, her father was still cold and stern.

Kimiyo was well-suited to excelling in science and academics. She had inherited her father's intelligence and then some and had a number of other natural genius-level talents. Applying these gifts, Kimiyo was accepted to the magnate program at America's Ivy University at age eleven. She was happy to accepted this, believing that distance from her father would improve their relationship. It was shortly after her arrival that Professor Caulder identified the true nature of Kimiyo's illness and developed an alternative method of treatment. This new diagnosis would later be published in a journal article Caulder wrote which would begin to unravel the true culprit of the "Manhattaning" and would help corroborate the Daily Planet's "The Great Lie" article the following year.

Restored to full heath, exceeding Caulder's own expectations, Kimiyo would add athletics and other active pursuits to her lifestyle, in addition to her incredible appetite for knowledge and science. When Kimiyo was eighteen, she saw the aftermath of the Brainiac Invasion as an opportunity and decided to finish her fourth doctorate and then finally leave university to enter the private sector. Kimiyo joined STAR Labs shortly after it secured the rights to study the Brainiac salvage. Here is where Kimiyo would fall in love with Murray Takamoto. Their relationship lasted for four years. Kimiyo and Murray had two children. Still when Murray made it clear that he wasn't the "marrying type", Kimiyo decided to take her son and daughter with her to oversee a STAR Labs station in Japan.

## **Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses**

### **Powers**

**Metahuman Physiology:**

* **Light Absorption:**