Kayami Mizushina

**Kayami Mizushina** (水科かやみ, *Mizushina Kayami*) is a CCG investigator from the 4th Ward, an Associate Special Class and a squad leader.

## Appearance

Standing at 1.64 m tall and weighing 47 kilos, she isn't especially heavy. Her small frame and the lithe build of her slender, skinny figure make her physically unimposing and sometimes even hard to notice. The colour of her iris is so deeply dark that it approaches pure black. These features, coupled with the bags under her eyes, her haircut, the fringe of which just so happens to cover most of her forehead and eyes, as well as her tired expression and exhausted smile, give her a relaxed, even if *sometimes* creepy look. Still, lately the teen has been seen bearing a more energetic expression, potentially a side effect from her new sleeping pattern and training schedule, as set by Izumi Okazaki. Her body, however, is not much different from before, with the sole exception of her muscles having become a bit firmer, even if they had remained completely unchanged in size.

When it comes to clothing, on the job Kayami naturally wears the standard, grey CCG coat. She does seem to hold a preference for wearing trousers over skirts, however. *Sometimes* when she feels like it, she may even decide to wear a tie, although that is a rare occasion. Speaking of rare occasions, on the off chance that Kayami is outside while *not* at work, she is usually seen wearing comfortable, simplistic clothes such as standard shirts and jackets of the light gamma. Her trousers are usually grey/dark grey, though.

## Personality

Initially a rather carefree and overly lazy girl, Kayami was a rather sloppy investigator and *mildly hopeless* as a person overall. Previously, the teen could rarely be bothered with doing *anything* at all. Even now, she is *highly resistant to work*. In fact, the only person who can reliably get her to do something is her superior, Izumi Okazaki, largely because of a combination of awe, a desire to live up to the faith and time he invested in her, workplace respect and of course, his strictness. While she still enjoys teasing people from time to time and relishes in sarcasm as always, being forced into more responsibility and into maturing a lot more rapidly than she's used to has managed to bring out some awkward traits in her. Granted, those traits were previously there - they were simply dormant. With her new position within the CCG and her squad, however, she is put out of her comfort zone, hence why her communication skills are struggling to cope. Made instantly aware of that flaw of hers, she struggles to find a way to permanently resolve it, just like any of the other many flaws plaguing her. While she is not a workaholic by any means, the pressure behind her caused her to adopt a new mindset of being more open to work and perhaps even willing, even if not for the entirely right reasons. Wishing to be seen as reliable, Kayami does her best in order to push herself beyond her limits and live up to the CCG (and largely Izumi's) expectations. Taking in as much responsibility as she can, Kayami will cautiously approach any new task that makes her feel uncertain and she will stumble her way through it in order to have some sort of success to justify her existence in front of Izumi, in front of Izumi and in front of herself - because on the inside, that carefree girl is tormented by deep-rooted insecurity. Struggling to come to terms with her own uselessness and with how much better everyone else is than her, she's consumed by envy and hatred - something that only makes her hate herself too. Desperately clinging onto the ambitions that the one man who believed into her gave her, Kayami does her best in order to succeed. For the sake of justifying her rank in the CCG, for the sake of improving herself and also for the sake of alleviating her own guilt over being consumed by envy. While she still struggles with handling authoritative figures, it is now a different issue altogether - as she learned to accept the authority of the "hard-asses" she has begun to feel considerably intimidated by them. Izumi being no exception, the only reason she feels at ease talking to him is because of their prior discussions and experienced together.

Other notable developments include her run-in with Misamune Akahoshi and witnessing Hajime Miura's demise. While the first not only managed to draw her attention to the struggle of ghouls, but also succeeded in enlightening her to the idea of ghouls being as intelligent and moral as humans, the second one taught her how evil ghouls could be and why the job of the CCG was so important. Her encounter with Misamune had painted her a rose-tinted image of ghoulkind - one that refused to kill and slaughter. One that refused to even fight. It wasn't easy shaking off that notion, but witnessing the brutal death of Miura was enough to send her over the edge. Witnessing a ghoul that not simply killed a living, breathing human being, but even gloated about it was something that made Kayami feel sick to her stomach. She had not even witnessed death until that fateful day. Seeing the pain ghouls are capable of causing to both humans and their own kin (as they bring negative attention to the species), Kayami was driven into rage, but more importantly - her mind was provoked into exploring morality for her own instead of simply not thinking about it at all. Ghouls and humans could both be good if they wanted to. When they wanted to be bad, however, things were really bad. Taking it upon herself to fight for the sake of innocent ghouls like Misamune and to honour the sacrifice of Miura, who died doing what he believed was right, Kayami seemed to be driven by a new type of determination that she had never before possessed before that. The determination to fight because *she found a fight to be worth fighting on her own*. Convinced in her correctness and also in Izumi's judgement, the girl pushes herself to the absolute limit, using every second of her free time and dedicating it all to her work for the sake of returning Izumi's kindness back. Of course, a person can only push themselves so far without anything or anyone to fall back on. Having a life focused on goals and nothing more, with the exception of an extremely unhealthy, work-driven mindset has set the teen on a destructive path not much different to Miura's own. Needing a lot more positive treatment and experiences, as well as a nurturing patience and care invested into her, Kayami could eventually evolve to become a confident, reliable investigator... or one that feigns those qualities and tries to make up for them through truly foolish bravery and a self-sacrificial attitude.

## Relationships

 Reika Hinomori | Kayami and Reika are in a happy but mildly dysfunctional friendship. Even though the two are good friends and have been good friends for years now, Kayami still uses Reika as an outlet to express her frustration at her lack of success. Fortunately for the both of them, Reika remains blissfully unaware of Kayami's sometimes snappy remarks and the two continue to maintain their relationship, having fun together and caring for each other.

## Powers and abilities

### General attributes

Having gotten better at the art of fighting over time, Kayami is still fairly bad, although she is more than capable enough of holding her ground against low-level ghouls.

* **Considerable Speed:** While her speed and agility are still lacking when compared to the average First Class, those two categories are where she comes closest to a real investigator. Her speed is good enough to give many ghouls a challenge.

* **Potent Swordsman:** Having taken up training with Izumi Okazaki, Kayami has attained a good grasp of swordsmanship and is now a potent swordsman. Though she's still improving, she's already an intermediate.

#### Clover

**Name:** Clover

**Rating:** B

**Type:** Koukaku

**Status:** In service

**Appearance:** When activated the Quinque is held by the briefcase handle, to which a small circle is attached. Said circle is 60 cm in diameter. From it, three large leaves, akin to tongues in shape, but thicker in the base and slimmer in the end, extend in different directions. They are each about 2.5 meters long and are fairly wide.

**Strengths:** Flexible and versatile, this Quinque allows the user to find various applications for it. It is made of a tough material and has high defensive properties.

**Weaknesses:** Due to its nature, the Quinque prevents the user from moving at all during usage, rendering them completely immobile. It is mostly a defensive Quinque and its attacking potential isn't that high.

**Mechanics:** The user can move the three leaves around in order to shield themselves, attack, or even squeeze them together to form a tentacle-like structure.

#### R-Ironclad

**Name:** R-Ironclad

**Rating:** B+

**Type:** Rinkaku

**Status:** In service

**Appearance:** R-Ironclad is a katana Quinque in a rich, deep red colour all throughout, handle and blade included. It appears as if it is made of a crystal-like material, which makes it look overly sharp but fragile. Neither of those is really the case.

**Strengths:** The blade is rather sturdy, which allows it to clash with other weapons fairly well. It is also light, meaning that it can be swung around at decent speeds.

**Weaknesses:** Unknown

**Mechanics:** R-Ironclad is nothing but a normal katana Quinque with no special functions or mechanics.

## Gallery

(Kayami design by /u/Qvalador/)(Kayami design by /u/Qvalador/)

## Trivia

* Kayami has been shown to hate people who get promoted (above her). She also seems to express guilt over feeling envious of said people.

* Kayami claims to be "really good with sharp objects". Observation would point towards the opposite (although lately with her swordsmanship training she's been getting a bit better).