Kaoru Tomori

**Kaoru Tomori** is a female ghoul living in the 17th Ward. She's also the older sister of Minato Tomori and an Aogiri Treeghoul.

## Appearance

Kaoru is a woman of incredibly small height, only surpassing the Japanese average by a meager inch she towers at incredible 5'3". Definitely shaped in a feminine manner, she sports long, elegant legs leading into a toned pair of thighs. Moderately wide hips then transition into a thinner waist and muscular torso. If it weren't for the definition of her shoulders and back, one might have called her petite due to her thin frame and medium-sized bust. She has long, flexible fingers with meticulously trimmed nails, befitting the position of an electrical engineer.

Never one to tan easily, most of her skin has remained regally pale. Despite her heritage Kaoru shows some almost European traits in her facial structure, sporting a round face with the occasional edge. Her eyes appear bigger, mostly in height, than the traditional almond shape, filled with gentle, maroon coloured pupils and accentuated by delicate but short eyelashes. Above those eyes curve her naturally flimsy eyebrows while a slender nose blends in between them. Kaoru's lips are rosy and luscious, usually forming an absent minded smile. Brunette locks bordering into ginger flow down her face and back in mostly straight lines until the shoulder blades where they come to an abrupt halt. Priding herself in it's silky appearance, Kaoru takes good care of her hair and occasionally tries out new styles.

When it comes to clothing the young woman is quite flexible, possessing enough clothes to have a rotation of outfits going. While aesthetic is of course important, she is definitely a fan of practicality. A casual outfit for instance could consist of sea foam coloured shorts, a grey top and white sneakers. Being a bit of a tomboy she doesn't prefer to include a lot of dresses and skirts in those rotations, tightly fit clothing however is usually fine.

During the night, on ghoul duty the aspect of aesthetic is completely irrelevant and Kaoru prefers the firmness of combat boots over trendy footwear. Befitting her Golem alias the ghoul tends to wear a knee-long grey mantle over similarly coloured slacks. An exception of this rule is during Aogiri organized raids where she'll prefer the ruby red of Aogiri robes.

To finish off the entire look, Kaoru wears a rough, cold and grey metal mask. While the majority of its surface looks naturally eroded, except for occasional spots of turquoise, there is a clearly visible line of lighter, fresher colour. The protruding *nose* of the mask is roughened up, sanded deliberately and accentuated with a turquoise line down the middle. It most likely played its part in her alias and she's quite proud of its appearance as it's design is partly self-made.

## Personality

Kaoru is quite the sociable character, an extrovert so to say, seemingly enjoying the company of both familiar faces around her, as well as those who might be familiar one day. The young ghoul carries herself confidently in conversation, appearing well-mannered most of the time, smiling warmly, blessed with a good sense of humour and will at least pretend to agree when it comes to certain topics.
Ironically enough she does not seek out the friendship of others on her own, often keeping polite distance until acquaintances express their wish for companionship.

An exception to this rule is of course Kaoru’s little brother, Minato, whom she loves dearly, even though it might be hard to tell on occasion, as the two of them have a history of squabbling relentlessly. When Minato was still young they lost their parents to CCG forces and Kaoru changed, seemingly more mellow and took her little brother under her wing.

As an electrical engineer with a degree in her twenties, she has shown to be quite bright and driven, devouring information at a ravenous pace, primarily to escape the streets with her brother.. On the flipside Kaoru has more than enough shortcomings. She’s the kind of person to shoulder everything alone, too proud to ask for help, as a result she’s a bit of a scatterbrain occasionally forgetting about tiny things like vacuuming or an appointment. Being highly educated doesn’t always work out in her favour either when talking with ghouls from the street, who might as well need a dictionary.

Ever since she was a teen, Kaoru became an avid reader of books, counting myths and romance as her favourite genres. Coming with the job is her enthusiasm for devices of all kinds, usually there’s at least one questionable plastic-wire combination lying around on her desk unattended.

Despite having made a name for herself and abandoning the streets, Kaoru is not a peace-loving ghoul at all. Under the alias of Golem she’s pragmatic, calculating and even a hint ruthless, driving many ghouls out of the 17th ward to protect her territory. She doesn’t hunt in her own ward, if she can help it preferring the eyes of the doves directed somewhere else. While Kaoru does not believe in preposterous ideas like ghoul supremacy, she has more than once expressed the wish to change this world for the better of her kind and is willing to stack the corpses high enough to reach that goal.

## Powers and Abilities

**Strengths:**
* **High durability:** Kaoru is a hardy person and it shows in her ability to deal with pain and punishment, the ghoul woman is known for having literally thick skin and uses this to her advantage
* **Close Combat Specialist:** Due to her territorial nature Kaoru has seen many fights with other ghouls and honed her natural talent for fights over the years, although never having mastered any style of martial arts her improvised methods can be quite effective
* **Great Sense of Smell:** While her brother hears well, she has excellent nose being able to spot the unique smell of people, animals and objects from a decent range. Minato jokingly refers to this as her hound's nose

**Weaknesses:**
* **Heavy Kagune and Balance Problems:** While she wouldn't deny the rather blunt effectiveness of her Kagune, it isn't really easy to deal with. Being heavier than normal Koukaus in addition to being entirely located on one side of her body causes Kaoru to make errors and makes it easier for the enemy to exploit her footwork and blind spots
* **Overconfident:** Others struggle to fully dedicate themselves to a goal but Kaoru has the exact opposite problem, whenever she does something she tends to stick to it until it's finished and then pushes further than originally intended. This might and will get her in trouble some day.
* **Weaker Regeneration:** As an inherent counter to her durability, Kaoru's body takes longer than the average ghoul to regenerate as the newly generated tissue needs to be as sturdy as the originally destroyed one. Needless to say she doesn't like to lose limbs.

## Kagune

**Type:** Koukaku

**Appearance:** Kaoru's Kagune manifests as a dense layer of RC cells, creeping from her shoulder blade down to the fingers. Once unleashed it hardens into the form of a ginormous gauntlet with clawed, pointy fingers. It's grey in appearance and seems to consists of multiple intersections with cracks in between them as if it were once chiseled into its current form by a mason.

**Strengths:** The Kagune itself is simple but potent, it doesn't change Kaoru's fighting style entirely and can be devastating if used correctly. Due to Kaoru's small frame but fit physique the additional weight can come in handy when fighting a person with simply a higher amount of bodymass.

**Weaknesses:** To be frank, Kaoru doesn't like her Kagune at all, feeling it to be cumbersome and restrictive. A claw cannot replicate the motions of a real hand and the additional stress on one side of her body is simply counterproductive.

**Mechanics:** Kaoru's weapon is heavy, even among Koukaku and can leave quite the dent in an enemy if they were caught by it. She can only swing it around without tiring out quickly because both her arm and the Kagune itself move, rather than one being burned by the weight of it all.
Even though somewhat misshapen, her Kagune is still a hardened Tool of RC Cells and can be used to catch weapons or projectiles on their way.

## Quotes

* "I think it'd be nice to not lose others, but on the other hand you cannot expect a perfect scenario, you know like in fairy tales? Our losses force us to grow, to become taller than we would have without them, so in a way it's not all bad." - On losing friends while talking with Arisu Ayako

## Trivia

* "Kaoru" means "delightful aroma".
* The core concept of her personality is hypocrisy
* Her favorite heroes of old times are Chiron and Loki
* Kaoru has a rather specific taste of music for a Japanese as she's shown quoting Bee Gees' lyrics