Acts First

## Background

The prudent Khan Courtier, now ambassador to the Court of Everlasting Fish and former Fist of the School Sentai, Chen Yuzuki Yu Yan "Acts First", was born and raised in a Buddhist temple in Tokyo in a "Chinese ghetto" solely by her Chinese human father (unknowingly being Khan Kinfolk), Chen Chao, a capable and well trained shaolin monk, later Buddhist priest, because her Japanese Khan mother, Yui, died in child birth (sacrificing her own life after a ritual, to bring a new Khan into the world). Together with her three years older brother Kaito (being Khan Kinfolk himself), whom she always saw as a role model - because he was not only an extraordinary student and fighter, but also a pillar of spiritual and ethical values (intended to one day take over the leadership of the small Buddhist temple from his father) and protected his little sister from any harm - she trained in martial arts, especially the art of Kung Fu, the Buddhist religion and way of life. Although she always kind of stood in the big shadow of her talented older brother, she was a very diligent, curious and ambitious student in the temple and in school herself. But due to her former shyness, she didn't have any real friends in school, except for her caring and popular brother, because the other pupils saw her as a weird "Chinese" nerd. Still, she seemed to be quite content with her simple life, but than, shortly before her 16th birthday, she killed her father and her brother after an insignificant argument in her First Change in their own temple, which was almost nearly destroyed in the process and later was burnt to the ground, not knowing about her supernatural origin, and was rescued last minute by the people of the Court of a Thousand Cranes Dragon Nest, never returning to her childhood home or her former school after that incident. Now an orphan without any real ties she was taken in by the Khan Courtier Fireheart, her new mentor and sensei, who introduced her to the "World of Darkness", to the Dragon Nest and after a while to her new school, where she finally met the members of her former Sentai, which she left shortly after she brought her half-brother to Tokyo and her lantern died, to became a courtier as ambassador to the Court of Everlasting Fish.

### Description

Yuzuki is an athletic, attractive, graceful young teenager with porcelain skin and bright shining emerald green eyes, relatively tall for a female Asian, who definitely has female charms and curves. A keen observer can also see, that she seems to be only half Japanese (and Chinese on the other half), although she has no recognizable accent when speaking Japanese (or Mandarin, which she also speaks fluently) with her clear voice. She usually seems attentive, prudent and focused, but when she gets angered, she has a dangerous determined predatory look in her big glowing green eyes. Since shortly after leaving her Sentai to become a Courtier as an ambassador to the Court of Everlasting Fish, the former court of her mother and uncle and now her cousin, she totally changed her style once more, to better reflect her duties as a courtier and ambassador, now wearing modest bright make-up without any mascara or eyeliner, very neat nails without nail polish and her long, full dark brown hair worn in a traditional Japanese style, using her red iron courtier-hairpin (the sign of her rank in court), in form of a stylized crane intertwined with a stylized fish, to fixiate her hair.

### Clothes and Gear

She also changed her style of clothes once more, now very often wearing traditional Japanese clothes and dresses, quite often in the colour red, the colour of her iron rank. Since then she also started wearing her stylized wooden Yin-Yang-amulet on a narrow brown leather-band again around her neck (the last memorabilia of her former life and her family connecting her to her dead brother Kaito), but wears no rings, earrings or other jewelry, not even a wrist watch.

She owns a Daishō, which was given to her by the Master of Stores of the Dragon Nest, Keeps Count, consisting of a traditionally forged Wakizashi, the former weapon of an aspiring Hakken, and a relatively new, modernly forged Katana and an unadorned black scabbard for the sword set, which she stores in her Magpie's Swag kendo bag.

The Bastet Loxley left her a special, old, but very sharp European backsword from his "brother", that saved him in Ghana (Rider). If the blade of the sword is focused, there is an magic inscription in latin letters in an unknown language (probably Gaelic) visible for a short while.

She has one set of clothes plus one set school uniforms bound to her.

### Owned Fetishes and Talens

* a Magpie's Swag kendo bag she received from Kazuko Naomi after her failed Rank Up Quest
* a Harmony bambus flute with several birds on it she received from Winter's Mate and Seeks the Horizon as a reward after the journey to China and North Korea to save her half-brother.

### Battle scars

She has four visible battle scars, that can't be hidden under a swimsuit, but still so under her normal clothes.

* Werewolf-Claw-Mark on the left stomach below the ribs (Deep Scar)

* Electrical-Burn-Scar slightly above the left hip (Superficial Scar)
* Bullet-Scar on the right upper arm (Deep Scar)
* Talon marks from the back of her right knee all the way past her butt cheek on that side (Deep Scar)
* Stigma-Scar on the right palm (Deep Scar)
* Tusk-Scar slightly above the hip (Deep Scar)
* Tusk-Scar on the right upper chest (Deep Scar)
* Giant Spider Bite on the upper left arm (Deep Scar)
* Ashura-Claw-Mark on the lower back near the kidney (Deep Scar)

### Gifts

* Diamond Claws, Urban Hunter, Skin of Jade, Inspiration, Sense Unmaker's Hand, Lick Wounds, Catfeet, Open Seal, Resist Pain, Balance, Falling Touch, First Slash, Blaze Talons, Sense Magic, Pulse of the Prey, Jam Technology, Sense the Truth, Resist Temptation, Cat Sight, Night's Passage, Eavesdropper's Ear, Pack Tactics, Sweet Hunter's Smile, Courtly Speech and Shield of Rage.

### Others

* She has a very acute, supernatural sense for any sort of danger.
* She seems to be quite in control of her supernatural anger.
* She is a very talented Kung Fu fighter, trained in the traditional and balanced "Arhat's 18 hands" Shaolin fighting style.
* She has a very high control over her flexible, well-trained body, comparable to that of an professional artistic gymnast.

### Tidbits & Trivia

* Personal & Related Quests
* Before the incident with her brother at their former temple she was a very diligent, curious and ambitious student, that most people would have called a nerd. She also seemed to like going to school and value education and knowledge quite a lot. Since then, other, supernatural things became her primary focus.
* If she was embarrassed in any way, she used to be prone to blushing really fast. This seems to happen much less often.
	+ Sexual themes and other "inappropriate" things seemed to startle her especially easily.
* Before the incident with her brother at their former temple she clearly seemed to prefer harmony and compromise to conflict and dispute, often trying to mediate between and calm the involved parties in such situations, in spite of her former shy nature. When she herself was criticized, she reacted indulgent and apologetic. Now, she defends her points of view much more determined.
* She was a member of both the swimming and the chess teams of the school her whole Sentai went to, but she quit both teams right after the incident with her brother at their former temple.
* She is haunted by the powerful angry spirit of her dead older brother, Chen Kaito, who is trying to make her life miserable before ending it.
* For a contest with her former, now deceased Lantern Kimura Masaki she offered her Nokia cell phone (a gift from Agrinya Yejide) as prize and vowed to refrain from the use of any modern technology from now on, should it be destroyed, which it accidentally was. After that, she didn't get a new cell phone and even stopped wearing a wrist watch, now refraining from the use of any modern technology.
* She confessed to Yejide and later also to Falling Star that she is homosexual, but that she still intends to fulfill her supernatural "mating duties" some day.
* She received her Deed Name, "Acts First", because of her quick, resolute and sometimes a bit rash decisions.
* She is a strict carnivore.

### Relationships

* She is the younger sister and murderer of Chen Kaito, her former role model. This incident turned him into a vengeful Yurei, that haunts her. Still, he kind of was the only family she had left, untill she met her cousin, her half-brother and his daugthers. After the incident at their burned out former home, the temple in a "Chinese ghetto", where he attacked her, although she only wanted to warn and help him, she believes, that there might be no way to save her brother's soul. This event profoundly changed her view on her future life aswell as her demeanour and her style, because she finally realized, that her former human life is ultimately over and all ties to it were severed.
* She is the student of the Khan Courtier Fireheart, who took her in, after she killed her father and her brother and nearly destroyed their former home, the small Buddhist temple, she was raised in, why she owes him a lot and values him very much, although they are still quite different characters. She got to know him and his duties as a courtier a lot better on a trip they took together to Hokaido. Now as a courtier and ambassador to the Court of Everlasting Fish she works closely together with her mentor, who is responsilbe for the whole island Hokkaido.
* She generally seems to get along quite well with all her former pack mates, including the antisocial Fujimoto Jun, although she acts much more distant since the incident with her brother. She got along especially well with Agrinya Yejide and Falling Star, whom she called her only real friends. After a major (in her opinion unnecessary) quarrel Falling Star ended the friendship with Acts First, which deeply hurt her. Today the realationship still isn't, what it used to be, but it was improving, untill she left the Sentai. Acts First is also very upset about Yejide leaving her former Sentai, although she wishes her well. She also was disappointed, with how her former Sentai members reacted during and after her failed Rank Up Quest, which was one of the reasons for her looking for a new assignment, although she still left the Sentai on good terms, but without great remorse.
* The death of Kinko Ryu in combat (being the second death of a Sentai member in a combat situation) hit her pretty hard, since she felt at least partially responsible, although this doesn't seem to be accurate. The death of her second lantern, Kimura Masaki, made this even worse, leading to another reason for her looking for a new assignment.
* She holds the Khan Fist Broken Sword, whom she challenged for her Iron Rank, in very high regard.
* She really likes her classmate Asai Emi and was worried for her, because of all the supernatural stuff happening around her, which was finally resolved by her former Sentai - revealing her to be a Changeling. Acts First boldly confessed to her, that she is a lesbian and sexually attracted to her, but was gently rejected by Asai Emi, because she is heterosexual.
* Although the two women used to be almost polar opposites, she seems to like the Khan Gato Sanae, who helped her dressing up for her Quest for her Iron Rank - a favor she definitely wants to repay someday.
* She values the friendly connection with the mysterious Bastet Loxley and even vowed to keep his secret (him saying, that he is an European Khan, which seemed to be far fetched) safe, although now her whole Sentai knows, what he really is. She is sad for how things with him and her former pack mate Agrinya Yejide ended.
* She dislikes Ashbringer because of his somewhat callous ways of doing things, although she started to respect him a lot more after their game of Go.
* She is the daughter of the deceased Khan Balances the Scales.
* She is the half-sister of an older Bastet named Xiang Quan, whom her mother had after an affair with a Garou named Ballad in China and whom she gave to an orphanage as an infant directly after birth - this makes her half-brother the grandchild of Farrunner. He was locked up in a penal camp run by supernaturals (mostly Vampires) in North Korea until Acts First and her Sentai freed him and the other surviving inhabitants, smuggling them across the Chinese border. Acts First swore to her mother, that she would save her half-brother with the help of her Sentai and bring him to Japan, which she did with the help of her former Sentai. She would like him and his family to join her, spending more time near and at the Court of Everlasting Fish, so that he can learn more about their mother and her history.
* She is the aunt of Quans's and Xiang Seo-Yun's daugthers Xiang Quing and Xiang Lan Heyon, which are atleast Bastet Kinfolk.
* She learned from the ancestor spirit of her mother, that she had an uncle, who had some children maybe even some Khan offspring. His uncle and his mother both came from the Court of Everlasting Fish.
* The Khan Courtier Crushing Pain from the Court of Everlasting Fish is her cousin, being the son of her deceased uncle, whom she wants to get to know better, like her own family history, two other reasons for her becoming a courtier and an ambassador to his court.
* She left her former Sentai with a "dead john" letter