Kokonoe Mercury

**Kokonoe Mercury** (ココノエ＝マーキュリー*Kokonoe Mākyurī*) is a scientist at the 7th Agency, and the daughter of Jūbei and Konoe Ayatsuki Mercury. She is a playable DLC character in the console version of *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma*.

## Appearance

Kokonoe appears as a fairly young adult catgirl with a slim build. Her eyes are a golden-amber with visible bags under them, due to working overtime in her lab. She has pink hair which she keeps tied in a specialized style consisting of a long ponytail backing up longer tufts resembling large cat ears, which tend to overshadow her actual animal-like ears, which fade into white at the tip, these ears are bent forward slightly. Her attire consists of an altered, scientist version of the usual Kaka jacket with a white coloration. A hole at the lower base provides room for her twin, cat-like tails. She also wears a pair of small spectacles, and is never without her trademark lollipop.

The oversized sleeves are cut at the sides to make it easier for her arms to slide in and out of them. She wears a pair of red capri pants with a black belt adorned by a large cat bell. The attire is completed with a pair of white mules with heels similar to the boots the Kaka tribe wears, but with no vamp, allowing her to take them off almost reflexively as her story mode render shows her barefoot in one of her feet.

In *BlazBlue: Alter Memory* during Episode 8, she also wears a white high-neck sports bra underneath her Kaka jacket after the oversized sleeves of her jacket got spilled with her own coffee.

When she was young, she had short hair and kept it in a pigtail, and wore the same yellow ribbon that she wears as an adult. She also did not wear spectacles. In terms of clothing, she wore a jacket similar to Taokaka’s except with the hood down, and with a black collar.

## Personality

Kokonoe is a rather serious and cynical woman with no regard for emotions, and always strives for Tager to complete his missions without fail; however, she can on rare occasions be quite personable, mostly around her creations. She is displayed and perceived as cranky and foul-mouthed most of the time. She and Taokaka possess a few similar personality traits, something that most note as “more in common than they realize”, due to their impatient nature and short attention span. She has some traits of her father and her mother. She also displays signs of being aware of the racism displayed to her heritage as a half-beastman; believing that people will show prejudice against her, it’s for this reason that even her potential new students and apprentices aren’t aware of her species, as displayed by Litchi in *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma*.

However, as Celica points out, Kokonoe is a good person at heart. Without Litchi’s knowledge, she became Arakune’s Observer despite the risks entailed to prevent the Boundary from consuming him and is trying to figure out an effective solution for his depraved state. Also, she repeatedly shows that she will only resort to mass destruction in a worst-case scenario, preferring to minimize the casualties caused by her war against Terumi or not have any at all. She was also willing to use an alternative method to activating the Lynchpin where Celica wasn’t sacrificed despite her being merely a clone and even took the initiative to create the Ex Machina: Minerva so she could defend herself.

Tager has described Kokonoe as being selfish, foul-mouthed, having an addiction to Silvervine candy and having the belief that the entire world focuses on her and her alone. Overall, Tager gives a very negative outlook on her when first describing Kokonoe to Noel Vermillion; however, at the end of his “frank opinions” on his superior, he states that she is actually a very kind and good person, something that Makoto Nanaya immediately calls out on, calling it contradictory to his previous sentiments. Her anti-social behavior and lack of outdoor activity implies that Kokonoe is a Hikikomori.

Lotte Carmine also introduces his opinions about Kokonoe to Litchi Faye Ling when they first met. Despite his numerous complaints about her lack of ability to congratulate people, he points out how she possesses the trait of not paying much attention to detail; but compliments her abilities as a scientist.

## Powers and Abilities

Despite being as capable on the battlefield as much as any character, Kokonoe doesn’t participate in combat a great deal. Her forte comes in the form of her grand knowledge of magic and science and being the daughter of Konoe supplements this. While she has not shown any of her own creations, her prowess as a scientist is frightening, her alterations to organic and non-organic matter being second to none, even causing the normally ruthless and intimidating Hakumen to shudder at the promise of an 'upgrade' from her. Her prominent works thus far have been the revival of Tager through cybernetics and the activation of Lambda by bonding Nu’s soul to the empty homunculus.

Due to comments dropped by both Hakumen and Hazama, and also being the daughter of both Jūbei and Nine, Kokonoe could be one of the most powerful individuals in the *BlazBlue* universe, though she refuses to admit it as it greatly angers her. Owing to her cat-like heritage, Kokonoe is known to possess cat-like reflexes, landing on all fours after falling from relatively great heights with no damage whatsoever.

When forced to take a direct hand in the battlefield, Kokonoe proves to be a very capable fighter. In battle, Kokonoe brings forth her many creations and tools such as using robots, a wrench, a specialized “drill hammer”, a freeze ray, rocket fists, and a gigantic Mecha-Tager. It should also be noted that she is not above using magic in battle, using it to summon a giant meteor in her Astral Heat.

In gameplay terms, Kokonoe has been described as a powerful rushdown character with many options; she is the only character, save Jin, who can freeze an opponent, for example. Her Drive is **Graviton** (グラヴィトン *Guraviton*, localized as **Gravition Capacitor**), which allows her to summon a small mechanical device that can pull opponents toward it, trapping them for Kokonoe to attack. Her Overdrive is **Graviton Rage (グラヴィトンレイジ *Guraviton Reiji*)** which increases the effects of any Graviton attacks, while reducing the amount of meter needed to use them. Before the major 1.01 update for *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma*, Kokonoe was regarded as the ultimate character in the game; post update, her capabilities have been toned down, but she still retains her top tier position.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Kokonoe doesn't get along with Donnie and often argues with him. She believes that she's better than Donnie when it comes to inventing and weapon-making. She also fight with Miu of being the better inventor which ended up just a game of using the most curse

## Trivia

Naming
* “Kokonoe” contains “Kokono”; the kun'yomi reading of the kanji letter for the number “nine” (九, on'yomi: *kyū*, kun'yomi: *kokono*); possibly a play on her mother Konoe’s alias, Nine. Additionally, the Japanese diminutive *ko* (子) means “child”, so Kokonoe can be read as “Child of Konoe”. “Mercury” comes from the Latin Mercurius and is commonly associated with either the chemical compound, Hg, or with the Roman God Mercury (which the compound was named after). A “grimalkin” (Kokonoe’s English nickname) is an old or evil-looking cat found in Scottish legends. During the 16th-18th centuries they were associated with devils and witchcraft and people tried as witches were often accused of having grimalkin familiars. A “bakeneko” (Kokonoe’s Japanese nickname) is a demon cat found in Japanese legends. Regular cats can become bakeneko through various ways including their tails becoming forked in which case they can also be called nekomata. They have various supernatural abilities including but not limited to shapeshifting, manipulating dead bodies and cursing humans.
* Her move naming theme is technology and scientific terms.

Other
* Kokonoe’s birthday, April 18, is Invention Day.
* The lollipop she licks is Silvervine Candy, which may possibly (or jokingly) give her skills for her eloquent speech, as shown in Taokaka’s “Help me! Professor Kokonoe” ending, where Taokaka eats one whole and starts making long sentences with words that she could not have used otherwise. Kokonoe then states that she had no idea the candy would have that kind of effect on someone from the Kaka tribe. Tager states in *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma* that Kokonoe is actually addicted to the substance.
	+ In general, it is common for people of Kokonoe’s caliber in both fiction and real life to often have a lot of sweets in general, due to providing glucose for high blood sugar as it fuels the brain.
	+ Added to this, Silvervine (Actinidia Polygama) is a plant which effects cats in a way reminiscent of catnip (though supposedly more intensely). It is found in the mountainous regions of Japan and China and is a popular cat treat in Asia.
* Kokonoe is the third character to complain about having small breasts, along with Noel and Platinum. She gets extremely irritated at Makoto’s breast size during her own “Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!” segment. She also gets quite angry at Noel during her “Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!” segment since Noel thought they could be great friends due to both of them having small breasts.
* Kokonoe’s electrocuted sprite reveals several lollipops hidden inside her jacket sleeves, similar to how Taokaka is hiding a pair of fish inside hers in the same situation.
* Her fireball’s color changes depending on which player is using her. If it is the first player, her fireballs are red, but if the second player uses her, the fireball’s color changes to blue.
* In *BlazBlue: Centralfiction* Kokonoe says that she is the only other SS-class rebelin history apart from Ragna, though it was a long time ago and Kokonoe erased all records of it, all that is known by the Control Organization was there was another SS-class rebel.
* Kokonoe shares her English voice actress with Tsubaki Yayoi.