Kaede Asui

**Kaede Asui** (*Asui Kaede*), also known as the **Fortitude Hero: Gideon** (フォーティチュードヒーロー：ギデオン), is a student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School, where she got in through official recommendations and is training to become a Pro Hero.

## History

Growing up, Kaede had an absent childhood as more than often her parents would always be too busy to be there for her which made her form certain anxieties and insecurities within herself at a young age. But overtime she stopped projecting her own insecurities and built her personalty one without the flaws of her own, often showing her kindness and empathy.

During her middle school days, Kaede was considered a favorite by peers to become a future hero due to her looks, personality, and strong Quirk, being capable of making bullies and the bullied get along. When her friends were approached by a gigantic threatening figure, Kaede built the courage to stand up against the monster and trick it into leaving herself and her friends alone, breaking down into tears right after.

## Appearance

Kaede is a tall teenage girl with a rather mature physique. She has short green hair, she usually has her bangs up in the front of her head. Her eyes are wide and sharp, dark in color and paired with short eyebrows set in a joyous and almost bubbly expression.

During school hours, she wears the standard female uniform which consists of a gray blazer with blue-green stripes, a formal white shirt, red tie, blue-green pleated skirt, black knee socks, and brown loafers.

## Personality

Kaede overall is a kind and friendly person who growing up was quite the social butterfly and even in her currents days in U.A., she's described to be kind and charismatic. Being highly social and excitable, she loves to hang out with her friends and is shown to become very upset when denied an opportunity to be at a gathering. She possesses a strong fashion sense and likes to go shopping.

Kaede is extremely courageous and is viewed as an ideal personality for hero work. Before entering U.A., Kaede would condemn bullying in middle school and even managed to convince some bullies to come around with her upbeat and friendly attitude. She is also capable of putting her life on the line to save others, even if she can't deal with the fear afterwards.

Though this was only what scratched the surface as in reality Kaede has a lot of insecurities about herself and her actions which is due to years of being neglected by her parents who were always absent for fighting never being the ones to be there for her. Though it surfaces sometimes, Kaede always tries to maintain her kind and joyous personality to all of those who she believes who are need of a friendly hand.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities**: Despite having minimal combat abilities, Kaede makes up for it with her Quirk proficiency and incredible reaction time. Her abilities allowed her to earn 9th place in the Quirk Apprehension Test. Kaede has demonstrated a good handle on the applications of her Alteration Quirk, which allows her to change the overall density of her own body. Often at times using her body as a shield or using it to support others. In addition to her Quirk handling, out of all of Class 1-A's female students, and most of the overall students in the said class, Kaede has the best reflexes.

**Enhanced Durability**: Kaede has proven herself to be quite resilient, being able to withstand multiple attacks from powerful foes without sustaining major injuries. One of the most impressive examples of Kaede's resilience, was when she endured the superior agnikinesis of Dabi, although, Dabi intentionally held back in his final attack that left Kaede alive.

**Enhanced Stamina**: Kaede has shown to be able to endure combat even while injured. She is able to continue fighting and supporting her allies despite suffering from multiple bleeding injuries on his arm and face, and was still able to drag the villain's unconscious body once the battle is over.

**Enhanced Agility**: Kaede is fast, agile, and has quick reflexes. She was able to keep first place during the majority of the Obstacle Race during the Sports Festival thanks to her own athletic ability. She was also able to partially dodge a knife thrown at his face and several other attacks by Stain, a notably swift opponent.

### Quirk

**Alteration**: Kaede's Quirk gives her the ability to alternate the density of her overall body. This means given the situation, Kaede can be heavier than 2 fully grown elephants or light than even air itself. This ability allows Kaede to handle a multitude of situations as she can gain higher density to guard people against attacks due to the density of her skin or to make herself lighter to even float. In addition, Kaede herself does not feel the levels of her own density as she explains it feels like its her own body weight so whether she's heavy or light she won't feel her own density.

But her Quirk does have its limits, as even if her skin turns denser the more impact it takes the lesser she can maintain that level of density. Another disadvantage is it takes time for Kaede to change her density as she says it works like a chameleon changing its skin color, it's progressive and doesn't happen in an instant and the time is even longer depending on the levels in between her current density to the density she does want to reach.

## Equipment

**Hero Costume**: Kaede's costume is designed to optimize both defense and agility. During when she needs to resist powerful blows or when she needs to dodge her opponents or even float.

* **Reinforced Polymer Vest**: Kaede wears a heavily reinforced vest above her clothes mainly used to sustain heavy blows or even gun shots, but is primarily there to prevent her from sustaining anything too major in case she ever isn't on a high density level. It's also to be designed to be easily removed in case the need for its removal.
* **Utility Belt**: There are metal capsules on Kaede's belt that contain water, pain medication, and disinfectants, making up a first aid kit. Also an additional four first aid capsules which brings the total to nine; these are held in packs at both his sides.
* **Booster Boots**: While being able to lower her density to a level that matches air, Kaede has trouble controlling where she floats. These boots enable her to boost herself towards any direction using pressurized air and as well to Kaede's request are suitable for running.
* **Gauntlets**: Kaede carries large gauntlets which enables her to pack an even heavier punch when she's at a higher density.