Tora Riutene

Template:QE Character Infobox

> You're going to let her fucking walk, after all this? You must have managed to miss every fucking thing going on topside somehow. Flying too high in the sky, huh? Do you have any idea what she's done? To my people? To this country? Aren't you some bigshot hero with the humans? You're giving her a pass because she's your friend!?
>
> Tora confronts Mark during the Dokuritsu Insurrection.

> Did you think I was like the others?
>
> Tora, usually before or while doing something very uncatgirl-like.

## History

Formerly a 2nd Lieutenant of the 9th Nekommando battalion of Editi Eadrom's Special Solutions Division. During the Dokuritsu Insurrection, she commanded her platoon in defense of TE and Kantoku facilities and personnel.

Although having spent the year prior as part of the Nekommando counter-terrorism corps, Tora was nonetheless shaken by the violence of the insurrection, and found herself questioning how things had got to be so bad. Over the course of her unit's deployment, she would come across a Domestic Catgirl named Tsuki, who had been cornered by rioters. Although normally unable to use force against humans for the sake of another demi-human thanks to a genetic geas, Tora overcame this limitation and shot the rioters, saving Tsuki. Having awakened to her free will, Tora began to question the morality of her actions, and the actions of the Engineers.

Tora would later appear at the TE Headquarters, having been ordered to fall back to the Tower to defend the personnel and equipment still inside. Now lacking her rifle and squad, but still with Tsuki in tow, she offered to guide Silver Knight and Hanai past the eighth level of the facility, which the genetic geas normally prevented. Despite being nearly overwhelmed with instinctual terror, she managed to open the way for the two AC pilots, coming face to face with the Immortals. As Mark and Hanai left Tora and Tsuki behind to confront Tommy and Editi, Tora managed to work up the willpower to question the Immortals, finally coming to understand her role in everything.

Realizing that Mark and Hanai had instead decided to help Tommy and Editi escape rather than bring them to justice, Tora confronted the pilots in the base's central elevator, where she attempted to lure Editi out of Carrier Prime to kill her. After shooting the dummy Avatar Drone that Editi sent out of the suit to placate her, she then demanded that Editi be made to pay for her crimes. Mark instead intervened on Editi's behalf, belittling Tora as a killer. Outraged, Tora shot Mark, which naturally had no affect on the suited android. Powerless to do anything else despite how far she had come, Tora could do nothing more than watch and cry in fury as Editi escaped with Mark and Hanai's help.

Afterwards, fearing reprisal from both the Japanese and Armor Corps, Tora took Tsuki and fled, eventually winding up in Europe as displaced persons. With no identification and no future, and Tsuki incapable of functioning in normal society, Tora accepted a role with the European Federation's Special Operations Executive, putting her gene-enhanced skills to use eliminating the enemies of her new masters while nursing a blistering grudge against the Armor Corps for their arrogance and complacency in the face of suffering.

### Life in the European Federation

Tora was required to divulge everything she knew about the Kantoku to Federal Intelligence, and cooperate with the Ministry of Justice in training their agents in identifying clones for elimination. Tora was then released to the Special Operations Executive under the arrangement that so long as the catgirl kept herself useful as one of their agents, the Federation would pay her a wage, give her a home, and handle caretaking for Tsuki. With her only other option essentially being execution, she agreed, and was assigned to the SOE's 18th cell. As part of the Jolly Deadmen, her skills in urban combat, close-range rifle specialization and explosives training help round the squad out. She is capable as a pointman, reconnaissance and as a spotter. In truth, being only a few years old, she lacks the same experience as the rest of her new team and relies heavily on her unnatural abilities to cover that gap.

Generally, her circumstances are known only to her commanders, and a few other units on a need-to-know basis. Over the past year, some rumours have gradually soaked out about there being something peculiar about her, but for now at least, the cat stays in the bag.

## Personality

Always a fairly serious catgirl, the stressful events of the Dokuritsu Insurrection have caused Tora to become far more cynical. She hates humans, finding her newfound ability to do so a wicked indulgence. She hates catgirls and other demi-humans to a degree as well due to their hard-wired nature that only by fate she herself was able to break free of. Overall, her anger comes from a profound sense of loneliness due to standing apart from both groups, and a realization that in this cruel reality, the only justice she can rely on is the justice that comes from her trigger finger. She regards her ability to inflict pain and death on others of her choosing as her greatest gift, and her experiences in the world at large since have only further twisted her into a hate-filled monster that sees enemies everywhere.

## Appearance

176cm tall, with short brown hair and eyes. Like all catgirls, she has four ears; two human and two cat, the later of which stick out atop her head, as well as a tail. Neither feature is normally visible under her combat gear, and she makes purposeful effort to hide them whenever possible (though somehow everyone seems to be able to tell anyways).

## Relations & Allies

### Jolly Deadmen

**Bob "Master Maple" MacKenzie:** MacKenzie has shown to be the only Deadman that regularly shows any kind of initiative on and off the battlefield. Tora considers him to be, if nothing else, a somewhat reliable counterpart on the team.

**Eddy "Lagodny" Wójcik:** Had no real opinion of the man in life. Considered his death a pathetic one.

**Cpt. Daniel "Skull" Piper:** Piper reminds Tora strongly of a Gernadder due to his propensity to wear his armor all the time, speak infrequently and wield heavy weapons. He is, however, probably not as stupid as one.

 **Jeanne-Amandine "Punished" Le Penn:** Aside from a brief meet and greet, Tora doesn't really know anything about Jeanne, and for the time being at least, has no reason to care. If she found out the woman used to a be pilot, she would probably try to kill her.

**Matti Heikkinen:** Does not consider the small man especially strange compared to her other new teammates. Does not appreciate his nickname for her either - "Kisu", meaning "Kitty" in Finnish and sounding too much like "Kiss" in Japanese.

**Cpt. Robert "Reaper" Wallace:** A man proficient at his job, which is about the best one can ask for in this line of work.

**Sgt. Nieve "Rayas" Liuche:** A woman that Tora finds inexplicably unsettling to interact with, perhaps due to her history with women in lab coats. Near as can be told, Liuche is the only member of the JDM that knows for certain that Tora isn't human, much to Tora's chagrin. Although this might normally be the basis of an eventual friendship, Tora views Liuche with hostile suspicion instead. While she may not trust the Deadmen's medic, she doesn't have any other choice.

**PFC. Sheng "Paladin" Wu-Er:** Tora generally considers Sheng to be nothing more than a bumbling fool, but at least he's a bulletproof one.

### Other

**Editi Eadrom:** Previously only known as "Mother" to her, Tora spent her two years of life blindly following Editi's wishes, killing a number of Japanese in counter-terrorist operations and more during the insurrection. The mounting body toll eventually caused her to question the validity of her actions, and Editi's wisdom. These doubts were reaffirmed by her talk with the Immortals, and after confirming for herself that Editi was in fact incapable of basic human empathy and seemingly beyond reprisal, attempted to kill her creator with her own hands. Her failure to do so haunts her constantly.

**Silver Knight:** A person she harbors a deep personal hatred for due to his siding with Editi and assistance in her escape, which has only grown upon getting out into the human world and learning that he is hailed as a self-styled hero of justice. She considers him an arrogant hypocrite and a two-faced, self-serving bastard, and were it not of the fact that he is basically invulnerable and protected by an army of equally invulnerable, irresponsible sycophants, would probably pursue attempting to kill him out of sheer disgust and spite.

**Tsuki Foster:** A Domestic-type Catgirl Tora rescued from rioters during the Dokuritsu Insurrection. Probably the most pathetic thing Tora has ever encountered. She takes care of the other catgirl as her unofficial guardian despite hating what she is - her pity outweighing her disgust.