Katai

Xhao Katai is an extremely important character in Catsuyoi, known as the leader of the genetic outcasts and the saviour of all mutants.

## Childhood

Xhao Katai was born in Isanhagae, Kina, to Xhao Manai and an unnamed mother. From a young age, he was showing to be a capable and intelligent child, learning to read and write before he was two. Right before his second birthday, his mother gave birth to his brother, Riyu. Him and his brother were particularly close, Katai serving as a kind of mentor. However, he noticed that Riyu never seemed properly content with living in Isanhagae, with its strict rules and specific culture. And one day, when they were aged 15 and 13, Riyu ran away from home and was never seen again by his family. They were distraught at his disappearance, but before they got a chance to settle, the iniagt broke into their house and captured Katai to be an experiment.

When he arrived, there were 3 other experiments with him: Lisiko "Liss" Li, Arden Creek and Tasho Yangwa. Katai, although shocked and scared about what had happened to him, attempted to stay strong for his new friends. Less than a month after him, Geulimja arrived (and, in the words of the other surviving experiments, he took it the hardest out of everyone.) With all of them being younger than him, Katai took it on himself to provide for all of the others, and started teaching school subjects to Tasho and Liss (they were both extremely undereducated, as they arrived there before starting school.) A few other experiments arrived over the years, but all died apart from a boy named Parkga Tsaifu. Due to the high mortality, they all started valuing each others friendship way more and Katai even noticed a budding romance between Liss and Parkga. At the same time, Katai found a way to escape, however it only worked for himself and so he didn't tell anyone for a long time. He used it to steal things from the outside world, such as extra food and blankets, to help the others. However, it wasn't enough and they all desperately needed help. Arden and Liss both had declining health, Geulimja was falling into depression, and they were all in general finding it difficult to cope with it any more. Additionally they were all starting to turn on Parkga as he was recieving special treatment from the scientists. Katai had been there for three years, and thought that it couldn't get worse. It did.

## Adulthood as an experiment

One day while he was mid-experiment, Tasho heard scientists conversing about their new stock; Hazamadine. They reportedly had looks of glee on their faces as they tried to decide who they would use it on. They considered everyone, before eventually deciding on Geulimja. After he was done, he relayed the information to the others. They were all, of course, concerned, but only Katai actually knew the true effect of hazamadine. He knew that his friend had less than a 10% chance of coming back alive. Reluctantly, he told him. The response was surprisingly apathetic. (According to Opal, "Geulimja responded with a sound of dissatisfaction, before facing the wall and crying for over an hour.") While all of that happened, nobody really noticed how unwell Liss was getting, until the point where she could hardly even speak. The two were both taken for experimentation at the exact same time, with the others all knowing that soon, their team would almost certainly become smaller.

After a day that felt like years, when Spinmaster's assistant went in to give them food, he informed them all that Liss had passed away. It caused all of them to be in misery realising that for the last few weeks they almost ignored her. Katai directly blamed himself, feeling that he could have stolen some medicine for her if he knew what she had. (Although, what she had turned out to be incurable anyway.) With all of that, they forgot about what Geulimja was going through, and when he came back he looked like a hollow shell of his former self. His skin had turned bright white, his hair had fallen out, and he was clearly taller. He also seemed to be in pain constantly, but at that point nobody even cared. They were all slowly turning against each other and going a bit crazy, to the point where any of the other experiments would get creeped out by the tension. Katai was also going through some extreme changes, his skin turning hellish red and his appearance generally becoming demonic. He started going out at night just to get away from them all, who he starting viewing as young children getting in his way. (Although, none of them were that much younger than him at the time.) As the iniagt grew, so did he, and at this point he was 24 years old and more fed up than anything. Arden was inches away from death and the others were mad at her for potentially being infectious. Katai desperately tried to find a way to escape them all, as he knew he loved the others too much to leave them behind. However, he didn’t have to.

Meanwhile, in the complete opposite end of the facilities, Tohi Komiko was in complete isolation and had been for over five years. She had been spending years planning her escape, and that night was the night to do it. She broke into the room where the others were, and ordered them all to go with her, of which they all obliged to. Once they made it outside, however, they were greeted by a group of scientists and bodyguards who all shot at them with their patented “ini-guns” (which were badly made in small factories in Arbergenia so it was a miracle they stayed together) and shot at the experiments with all of their might. They all got injured, but ended up outrunning them. Arden had been wounded by far the worst, and they knew she only had minutes to live. As she lay on the ground dying, a scientist suddenly ran up to them. They all were terrified thinking they were being caught, but that scientist revealed that she had no intention to harm them. Pulling bandages out of her bag, she attempted to heal Arden’s injuries. It was no use and she died soon after. With no reasoning (or so they thought) the scientist collapsed and died at the exact time. The others, full of adrenaline, didn’t seem to notice and ran where Tohi told them to, which turned out to be to Kye’s house.