Maive Claire

**Kuramitsu Meruka** (倉密メルカ, *Kuramitsu Meruka*?) is one of Kamirai Ukiyo's trusted allies and a member of Kamirai's Group as one of the operatives. Her job is similar to that of an assassins', dispatching people that Ukiyo thought to be threatening enough to kill but also not enough for him to kill them himself. A former member of Big Spider that defected to the Kamirai Group after the gang was dissolved.

## Profile

### Appearance

Meruka is a petite, thin, and nicely proportioned girl, described as rather beautiful. She has a small face with sharp canines and white skin. Her eyes are large with their corners angled upwards, with a beauty mark underneath one eye. Her hair is short and fine, black in color, and just reaches her shoulders. She wears an all-black outfit, with black gloves, rolled up sleeves, and when on the field, she can be seen wearing shoulder holsters.

### Personality

Meruka is a stoic, straightforward individual. Due to her immense strength and skill, she often undertakes her work with a calm formality, displaying little emotion as she does so. Though she tends to speak in a relaxed, polite manner, her actions often showcase an immense brutality garnered through years of working in the underbelly of Academy City. Though she sometimes expresses emotions such as surprise and sadness at certain events, her face and voice remain entirely neutral.

Despite this stoicism, Meruka has proven on numerous occasions to be something of a sentimental and emotional individual. During her training of Nagi and Shuyo, despite her stated hatred of "Lab Rats" and Child Errors, she grows affectionate towards the pair, telling Ukiyo of her concerns for their safety. She later takes care of Yu for them as a favor when they go on a trip. Similarly, she refuses to look at the corpse of Mikitaka upon his death due to their past-friendship, despite the two's attempts to kill one another earlier in the day.

### Background

When she was at the age of seven, she lived in an orphanage along with Hazekura Mikitaka and Hirose Yasuho, with Aohoshi who often would doctor her. After Aohoshi left the orphanage, she leaves Meruka and her friends at an orphanage to take care of younger child errors. Later, she and her friends were sent to a 'power-boosting' facility, which in reality is a previous generation of the Dark May Project that Kinuhata Saiai and Kuroyoru Umidori participated in, where she listens to Yasuho pondering about herself being a level 0. As she watches Yasuho is raised to level 2, Meruka is still a level 2, sue to her inherent incompatibility with Accelerator's cognitive patterns which earned her the nickname ***Brain Pitfall***, as no matter what the scientists would do, the thought patterns would just end up disappearing as if it was gone down a pitfall. She notices Mikitaka's depression about him power dropping to level 1, while Yasuho tries to cheer him up as there is still time to improve his power but Mikitaka leaves in anger. Meruka sneaks into their record file room finding more about their experiments that they are only affecting their power levels instead. She hides while two researchers arrive and talk about Mikitaka's regression to level 1, wanting to know more about a possible flaw in their methods, decide to expand their research data for Mikitaka.

She later joins with her friends, with Yasuho in a state of daze, Meruka mentions that it's due to the intoxication's of the experiments are worsening. After Mikitaka was being called by one of the researchers, noticing that he is being called repeatedly. While Yasuho still in a daze, Meruka suggests escaping the facility. She knocks off two researchers when they were about to call on Mikitaka again and escape. The researchers notices their escape plan and they authorize firearms, and killing all of them. Meruka says they didn't tell the main the lab about this, meaning they have a chance of covering it up and she takes a different route. Hiding in the ceiling she notices their combat armor and weapons commenting she could never win against them head-on attacks.

Later, Meruka slaughters all the researchers in their control room not before trapping the armored guards. They finally escape out of the facility and burning it out, not without losing Yasuho in the process. Mikitaka apologizes to Yasuho who has been shot and killed during their escape plan. Meruka points out to him that he shouldn't feel responsible. As she doesn't feel anything even though Yasuho is dead. She mentions that they were messing with their brains that some of their feeling and emotions are gone.

## Abilities and Powers

Meruka has been shown to have a naturally intuitive physical aptitude, possessing the remarkable ability to coordinate her body in any way she wants, allowing her to grasp and replicate any physical action with ridiculous speed and efficiency. Having only been shown the basic one-two combo once, she was able to perform the punching technique to startling effect multiple times on her first attempt; similarly, with just the knowledge of how to hold a sword properly and go into a stance, she was able to instantly overpower a trained sword instructor. Even as a 14 year-old child with minimal training, she was capable of easily defeating a trained Skill-Out member using only a crowbar, striking him in multiple areas across his body faster than the eye can process. She is a master martial artist whose strength is above that of regular humans, casually tossing furniture with a single hand, causing great collateral damage from the force of her physical strikes, easily uprooting large sections of the ground, and delivering blows to a man's temple with enough force to crush their skull. Her body is one capable of withstanding any attack, and she can be called a "berserker woman."

She is not a mere brute. She boasts excellent reflexes, and flexibility, to the point where she can bend backwards so far that her head reaches between her feet. She has displayed the ability to dislocate any of the joints in her body at will, such as the ones in her arm to extend her reach. This is because of her tendons and connective tissues being twice as elastic as normal humans despite their perceived strength. This flexibility additionally extends to her internal organs, as she was able to shift her heart and avoid it being shot. She has the agility and combined athletic finesse of the most successful aerobatics and acrobats. She can easily match or surpass any Olympic record in gymnastics such as the hoop, climbing rope, crossbar and mountain bike. At the same time, Meruka possesses the ability to achieve perfect equilibrium in any conceivable position. She seems to be able to adjust her position by instinct, allowing her to balance on almost any object, no matter how small or narrow.

The core of Meruka's superhuman abilities lies in her unique body structure, which has three times the muscle composition of a normal human, allowing her to achieve superhuman feats such as speed, strength, and durability. This special muscle configuration gave her immense natural strength and toughness from an early age, making it easier for her to take physical stress and be extremely resistant to natural effects. Her durability allows her to withstand heavier blows without fear of breaking her bones. The density of her skeleton allows her muscles to contract more without being affected, allowing her to throw stronger punches and block incoming attacks more easily. While her limbs are thin, they possess unbelievable strength and endurance capable of maintaining her body's structure after a point-blank attack from Hokaze Junko. To maintain the composition of her body, she eats roughly as much as three sumo wrestlers. This also grants her the ability to rapidly heal and regenerate from harm faster and more extensively, as well as possessing a higher tolerance for drugs and diseases than normal humans and allows her to recover from the effects of larger doses rapidly.

Meruka's trademark skill is her seemingly superhuman temporal perception and the kinetic vision that accompanies it. When Ukiyo first tested her by throwing a one-hit kill punch from behind, not only was she able to easily evade the strike in the minimal amount of time, but was also able to casually track Ukiyo's fist with her eyes as she did so; by Ukiyo's own admission, it is not simply a matter of reaction time but more accurate that Meruka lives in her own "dimension of time". With her incredible temporal perception and kinetic vision, she is able to instantly react to strikes and evade them with minimal effort, even from those of incredible fighting prowess in their own right.

### Combat

In her pursuit of mastering her martial art in her daily training, she has come upon the ideal form of breathing and walking techniques for a human that not even the talented Saints could attain through training. While not in the realm of those who naturally possess the ability to replicate potent miracles, her training has "affected her in the perfect way", bringing about a natural and controlled way of breathing and steps that produce no wasted movement. Acqua of the Back admires and praises her as the greatest he has seen in that one respect. She can match a squad of Anti-Skill with her bare hands due to her honed fighting skills, requiring little effort in taking out most of her enemies. She can destroy spiritual items with ease, even easily catching Gáe Dearg and throwing it back, and deflect magic casually with her fists. She can be called almighty in any weapon she uses. She has no true favorites, but guns are the only ones she likes overall.

#### Close Combat

Meruka is incredibly skilled in martial arts, capable of sneak attacks and upfront combat. Her methods are volatile, enabling her to rival practically all types of combatants. During her confrontation with the Fourth Division, she calmly defeated the dozens of Anti-Skill Aggressors with physical combat, disarming and dodging attacks from many directions. She could strike with precision before her opponent could react, and overpower individuals twice her size. In terms of physical combat, Meruka's preferred fighting style relies heavily on sneak attacks and evasive maneuvers, using a mix of solid basics with high-risk turns or aerial moves which she uses in tandem with her speed; if the initial strike she is going for has been blocked, she is able to use high flying kicks, unorthodox punches, and even knee strikes to retaliate.

Though rarely using close ranged weapons, Meruka has been shown to be extremely skilled in Tantōjutsu, a knife fighting system that uses a knife or dagger. She is very fast and executes deadly attacks that are hard for her opponents to avoid. She wields her blades with grace and poise, striking with extreme speed and precision with each dagger thrown, almost always hitting the targets in the head.

#### Ranged Combat

Being her main choice of weaponry, Meruka is an excellent all-around shooter and is extremely adept at using conventional firearms and archery with impeccable accuracy due to her keen eyesight and impeccable hand-eye coordination. Meruka can capture highly accurate and perfect shots from nearly any angle, physical position, or state of motion. She can fire multiple arrows in seconds, hit enemy weak points with great precision, hit small targets head-on at long range, and is skilled enough to mark two enemies and fire a single arrow with the intention of striking both, surpassing the normal rules of being unable to alter its course. She also has advanced skill with pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and assault rifles, is highly skilled with snipers and has extensive knowledge of all firearms. Able to fire accurately at enemies from any distance; she often hits the head and can even wield a shotgun with one hand.

### Esper Power

Meruka is a level 2 esper with the ability **Secret Research** (静電送信機(シークレットリサーチ), *Dansei Sōshin-ki (Shīkuretto Risāchi)*, lit. "Electrostatic Transceiver"?), it allows her to receive the emissions of electrical signals from machines and human's to read the machines inputs and the human's thoughts, with the ability being more like a transceiver than actual telepathy. With this power, Meruka can read people's minds, or to be exact, read their emotions, for instance, she can tell where they might aim next, which would allow her to anticipate an attack before the opponent throws it; or she could know is someone's anxious or calm, or feelings of guilt to find out if someone's lying. As every action that someone makes involves activating their electrical signals, it is impossible to escape from her watch. It would require someone to be able to move without thinking for them to be unreadable, an impossible feat even to the first ranked esper. Because Meruka can read everything, even the most minute of intentions, she needs time to filter through everything. Also, if the opponent is in poor condition their fatigue and other problems make the process even more difficult.

## Equipment

### Conventional Weapons

 File:Equipment.png
Meruka lacks the various qualities of a high level esper, or the ritualistic catalysts used by normal mages. She instead uses all state of the art weaponry that are unable to store any magical energy. She utilizes a large number of different firearms and weapons to eliminate her targets and is extremely skilled with all those weapons. She also makes use of personal hand grenades, stun grenades, smoke grenades, C2 plastic explosives, and landmines, and she is skilled in incorporating them into traps with trip wires, hidden fuses, and a detonation system using a cellphone to trigger them through modified communication loops. She has a number of Claymores, which simultaneously release around seven hundred steel balls with diameters of only one or two millimeters. They radiate outward in all directions in a fan formation with enough power to destroy an infantry unit in one strike. She is also familiar with setting up surveillance systems, allowing her to use a number of concealed CCD cameras throughout the Pet Shop.

* **Calico M950**, a submachine gun used as reserve sidearm. It has a compact size similar to a large handgun with a reinforced plastic that makes it look more like a toy when compared to the Walther. It has a unique helical-feed magazine that allows for fifty Parabellum rounds to be fired at a rate of seven hundred rounds per minute. It is also equipped with a sound suppressor, laser sight, and vertical foregrip.
* The **Walther WA2000** is a super heavyweight, semi-automatic sniper rifle of the highest class and performance that is the pinnacle of the latest electronic techniques. It costs $12,000 due to only being one of the 176 units produced. It is a rifle with a compact size measuring a little over ninety centimeters in length with the bullpup structure of the gun barrel with a gas-operated magazine measuring at a length of sixty-five centimeters. It fires a .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge that has an effective range of up to one thousand meters. While it is not equipped with its standard Schmidt & Bender telescopic sighting device, Meruka has installed a pair of extra-large electronic optic devices as a special scope mount fixed in parallel above the barrel and on the left flank.
	+ The unit on the main side is the AN/PVS-4, the latest night vision scope used by the US armed forces that has been banned from being exported to prevent the leaking of technology to other countries. It uses a super sensitive video camera that acts as a light electrical amplifier with a lens, raising and displaying a perfect brightness. Acting as an electronic "owl eye", it multiplies the range of vision by 3.6×, allowing it to view up to six hundred meters under the moonlight or four hundred meters in starlight. The second unit is an Elkan Specter IR thermal weapon scope installed as sideways support. It is also electronically equipped for night vision, but displays the subject's heat pattern on the image display rather than acting as an intensity amplifier. It can perceive temperature variations from -5 to 60 °C up to two hundred meters with an 1.8× magnification.

### AIM Jammer

 File:Bracelet.jpg
Due to the great influx of thoughts and inputs she gets at every second from her ability, Meruka started wearing a pair of AIM jamming cuffs on her wrists as a means to help keep her esper power in check due to the passive, "always active" nature of her ability. The cuffs resemble normal bracelets. They work differently than conventional AIM Jammers; while normal jammers dissolves an esper's concentration, Meruka's cuffs are prototype anti-esper technology that disrupts the AIM diffusion fields of an esper, using a reverse calculation of a target esper's AIM diffusion field to send out specialized disruptive electrical waves. With that, the device could at least force the abilities of powerful espers, but since Meruka voluntarily inputted a totally accurate calculations, the device could completely nullify her AIM diffusion fields, stripping her of her ability. The left cuff has a switch that could turn off or turn on both the devices simultaneously.

Meruka usually turns on the device during everyday live, or working low-level jobs, but when she considers the situation to require her ability, she turns it off to regain the advantages of her mind-reading powers.

## Trivia

* The artwork used to express Kuramitsu Meruka is that of *Ishimi Yokoyama*, drawn by "**バラ**" on pixiv.