Naoko Koizumi

**Secretary-General Naoko Koizumi** is a supporting character in the Ace Combat trilogy created by InsurgentAces Creatives. A woman known for her strict, yet compassionate side of raising her troops for battle, she has earned the moniker "The Snow Leopard of Nichihan" for her cool yet calm and professional demeanor in placing her troops for several skirmishes, which has earned her a large amount of respect not only to her military personnel, but to her people because of her motherly figure and how she was adhered as a true leader.

## Early Years

Naoko was born on March 4, 1989 in the Dai-Gun Prefecture of the Nichihanese Empire to a mother who was a Communications expert during the Cold War between Osea and Yuktobania and a father, Shiro Koizumi, who served in the Circum-Pacific War as an Admiral for the Imperial Nichihanese Navy.

During her early years, Naoko had a younger sister named Kurenai Koizumi, born in 1996, who she became extremely close with and shared a liking for entering in the military and help serve their country to become heroines. Before the onset of the Dominatus War, now a Lieutenant General in the Air Force and given the nickname "The Snow Leopard", she developed a close relationship with then-Lt. General Lars Marsden after assisting the latter during Harima's great struggle for independence, with which he also held a close relationship with the Imperial Family of Nichihan, including Emperor Mitsuhide and Imperial Princess Takara.

## ATLAS Tenure

Before entering in the ATLAS, Naoko received a report that her sister and father were declared K.I.A. when a car bomb was rigged by Dominatus in a Ganzorigan restaurant. She used this as an urge for her to fight and avenge their deaths. Naoko, along with her lover Marsden, and the new Nichihanese Empress, Takara II, formed a Coalition to eradicate the Congregation of Dominatus once and for all.

During the Investiture of Takara, Naoko was then awarded the Order of the Princess of Suribachi, the highest military award in the Nichihan Empire and promoted to Field Marshal of the ATLAS Defense Initiative, wherein she was assigned as the overall Chief of Staff and Lars Marsden as the Vice Commander, respectively. This is where Takara also revealed her love to Marsden as well, much to her shock, though the two women resolved that they will fight for love until the end of the war.

Naoko would then catch the attention of one pilot, namely Reginald Aleksandersson from the Osean Federation, the latter whom he reminded so much of his mother and the former reminded herself of Kurenai. Because of this, the two would share a mother and son bond that lasted within her tenure as ATLAS chief of staff, to the point that, one time, she tucked Reginald in his sleep upon finishing his recorded entry and giving him food to energize his day.

Before Naoko left for Nichihan, she mentioned that there will be a special luncheon meet for the ATLAS pilot squadron, the Valiants, held by the Empress herself to get to know the squadron even more, with which Naoko told Reginald that she will wait for him. However, the plans never materialized as the Cherry Palace, the place where Empress along with the Field Marshal and General Marsden are having a state visit, was under attacked by the Congregation of Dominatus' flagship, the Argalon with the assistance of the Holy Warriors, Dominatus' elite spec ops forces, and the Snow Leopard was assassinated in the process via machete attacks to the body and head, but not before leaving the task to Field Marshal Marsden in spearheading the Task Force ATLAS in her demise.

The death of the Snow Leopard caused the whole country to mourn the loss of a mother figure in the Nichihanese Imperial Armed Forces for she was widely and deeply loved by everyone for her strict, yet compassionate motherly side of hers, but, also inadvertently became the catalyst for Reginald Aleksandersson's mental decline in the following months.

## Pre-IJSF era

In reality, Naoko Koizumi was knocked unconscious in the attacks back in the Cherry Palace and that a clone was used by Dominatus/Pax Aeterna to give the image that she was indeed assassinated. During the time frame, she was used as a cannon fodder by Pax to fight in Gladiatorial death battles where they gave blatant regard to human life and would eventually dispose her. But, two high-ranking Pax figures, Chief Revenants Manfred Karl von Krenskanzler and Jeremiah O'Skanlon would use her for something else, particularly as a sex toy for several Pax guards, cleaning prison garbs and preparing chants/prayers to revere the Lord Commander, a.k.a. The Anointed One for his works.

## Eventual return and formation of the United Nations

After the incident in the Yuktobanian-Nichihan border, that took the lives of several IJSF personnel, including Ven Asti, Sulaiman Arvian's wife, one of the Pax soldiers, Sanderson Jankowski, defected to the side of IJSF, via Empress Takara II and Imperial Princess Unohana Hime IV and informed them that the Snow Leopard is alive and being holed up in a Gulag within Cinigrad, Yuktobania.

Within the prison grounds, before Naoko was about to engage in another round of sexual activities with a Pax guard, she rigged his bathroom with a well-timed trap and led an uprising with several Pax guards defecting to the Allied cause and other prisoners under her wing.

Naoko, free from captivity and leading the charge, was spotted by Reginald James Aleksandersson and Sanderson Jankowski, both men working for Infinity Services PMC, and rescued her from several Pax forces.

After the arrest of Reginald Aleksandersson and his subsequent release due to the court martial being a covert ops crafted by Pax Psychological personnel, Naoko makes her return via a televised broadcast held inside Bright Hill and, within the string of incidents that followed, caused the formation of the United Nations, effectively putting an end to her military career. However, it didn't hinder her original goal and that was to eradicate Pax personnel and assist her fellow countrymen during the most dire need of circumstances.

## Style of leadership

Naoko Koizumi's style of leadership is basically that of someone who follows by example and principle, rather than rank alone. She knows how to implement a strict yet perfect example into becoming better people and personnel during her military career as an ATLAS Chief of Staff, to the point they viewed her as a mother figure to everyone in the Nichihan and ATLAS Armed Forces, much like Empress Takara II is to her people.

When she became the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, she gave up her military role altogether, but was still able to provide the motherly figure with a big sister complex, according to Reginald, in a way that almost everyone revered her and looked up to her as an icon for leaders in the Strangereal world.

## Trivia

* Naoko, along with Empress Takara II, Imperial Princess Unohana Hime IV and Kurenai Koizumi have never uttered a single profanity throughout the series, thus maintaining their pristine image and Yamato Nadeshiko status.
* Naoko is revealed to be extremely skilled in the piano and an adept singer, as evidenced when she played "Forevermore" for Lars Marsden during the former's funeral.