Tanuki

*Unless one were to stare up into the night sky as one walked, one would never even notice that Tanuki was there. The diminutive heroine was balanced neatly on one foot on a flagpole, twelve feet from the ground and staring into the apartment complex across the street. From her vantage point she could see the small cluster of Warriors, most of them drunk if they were not high from the pain medications they had stolen from Ms. Lacey's apartment. Three big bad sword-wielding gang members against one terrified sixty-eight year old woman. Tanuki was outraged. Slowly she took aim with her bow, a small canister at the end of the arrow she knocked instead of a typical arrowhead. Tanuki drew back, checked her aim, and released. The arrow shot through the windowpane and begin spewing the gaseous contents of the canister through the room. In mere seconds now Ms. Lacey would have her much-needed medications back, and the Longfangs would have three new Warriors to deliver justice to.*

## Origin Story

Nanaki Zumi was born and raised in New Kensington's Eva-Tokyo neighborhood by her grandparents, whom insisted that their young ward be taught to not only understand her native Japanese culture and heritage but to love it with a passion, and be proud that she was *both* Japanese and America. The senior Mr. and Mrs. Zumi died in a horrible automotive accident when the little girl was only just eighteen months old and so she was largely spared the tragic sense of loss she might otherwise have had, a fact that Nanaki's grandfather counted among the girl's many blessings.

Almost all of the love and certainly all of the hope the Zumi's held for Nanaki vanished when at sixteen she announced her intention to follow in her father's career and become a Black Zodiac Longfang. Despite her best efforts she was unable to convince her grandparents and the majority of her friends that becoming a Black Zodiac did not mean automatically becoming a terrorist, but in this she was largely unsuccessful. In the end she turned up on the steps of the Academy without any relations to speak of and nothing but one small bag of clothing. She would spend the next four years in intense education before finally attaining her goal and becoming a Longfang beat patrol. When Project: Yokai was developed by the Black Zodiac instructors, whereby gene-splicing and genetic manipulation would be utilized to produce an entirely new type of law enforcement officer Nanaki, no longer with friends or family to care, volunteered. Twenty young beat cops subjected themselves to horrible trials and test runs. Two of those twenty survived. Nanaki was one.

Now equipped with what were truly amazing Meta-human capabilities, Nanaki was set out on various missions and task forces to better understand her newfound abilities and to put them to good use. Normally, she kept her abilities and identity a secret as her superiors demanded, but ultimately found that sitting on the sidelines waiting to be called into action was unsatisfactory. Contacting a few street informants and allies in seedy places she was able to have a costume patterned for herself and merrily joined the ranks of the 'helpful private citizens' as the superhero Tanuki. What she couldn't accomplish as a Longfang she would accomplish as a hero, but rues the day when her new found friends and team mates discover her dual allegiance.

## Meta-human Abilities

Tanuki possesses six senses that operate at incredible meta-human levels. Her sense of sight is so acute she is capable of reading a directional street sign with perfect clarity out to seven hundred feet. She is also able to dilate her pupils at will to allow in much more light to her receptacles than an average human, which allows her to view her environment with full 3D and color visual acuity with no more available light than a single match. Her sense of smell is so acute she is able to identify and catalogue the unique scent of another individual , capture that scent anywhere in the city, and track it to its source. She usually needs to spend about eight hours just caching aromas to track efficiently. Her sense of hearing is so acute she is capable of hearing a whispered conversation at 300 feet with perfect clarity and with proper concentration can use her sense of hearing as a manner of lie detecion or attempt at falsehood just by listening for changes in pulse rate or heartbeat. Her sense of touch is so acute she is able to read a book by touch alone as her fingertips can discern the imprint of the printing press on the pages. Her sense of taste allows her to detect one foreign particle in ten thousand; she could for instance detect a single grain of salt in a spoonful of sugar granules.

Her greatest sense comes from her total skin volume, which is able to detect and react to even the most subtle of changes in the environment. As such, by sensing air displacement and other variables in less than a nano-second she is able to react immediately to danger: she can dodge a sniper shot and cannot be snuck up on, ambushed, or taken by surprise.

In addition to her Meta-human senses, Tanuki's natural healing ability has been amplified by a factor of 500,000%. In essence it renders her invulnerable to fatigue poisons and common injury. A simple knife slash across the palm of her hand would heal before the blade could even finish its trajectory. She could be run through with a sword and heal completely within a time frame of one minute, shattered bones will repair themselves in under two minutes, and even a fatal injury to the head such as as would be inflicted by a gunshot wound would heal in roughly three to five minutes. It's not currently known if she could regenerate missing limbs but she can regrow her own bodily organs with such speeds that drugs (both harmful and beneficial), toxins, poisons, and gasses have no effect on her whatsoever, and she cannot succumb to any terrestrial disease or illness. It has been speculated that she could even survive total decapitation, but this is incredibly unlikely.

As a final compliment to her altered body chemistry Tanuki possesses a sort of internal gyroscope that prevents her from stumbling or tripping naturally, resulting in a perfect balance that allows her to sprint across a surface span as narrow as two inches.

## Skills & Talents

As a Longfang, Tanuki has been thoroughly educated in the Empire's version of Law and Order and has memorized how the law expects her to conduct her investigations and the rights and responsibilities of both an officer and the criminals she deals with on a daily basis. She is quite a skilled observer and can conduct her investigations through observation and skill of criminal psychology.

Tanuki is quite skilled in marksmanship, normally relying on her law enforcement equipment but also occasionally making use of a styled tech-bow, detailed in equipment below. She has been thoroughly trained in unarmed combat as well, utilizing the Longfang fighting style that combines modern day boxing techniques with bodily take downs and submission holds.

Nanaki has been raised with a deep and profound respect for her native Japanese culture, resulting in a well-spring of knowledge regarding Japanese festivals, customs, and traditions. She is idiomatically fluent in both Japanese and Eglish, and even maintains a diet consisting wholly of Japanese cuisine, meals, and culinary habits. To assist in this she has trained herself to cook all thing Japanese save specialty foods such as sushi and enjoys cooking meals and snacks for others.

## Equipment

As Tanuki, Nanaki will sometimes make use of a small styled hand crossbow attached the the right wrist of her costume. Under ordinary circumstances she will only utilize bolts with rounded, non-lethal heads to knock the wind out of a foe rather than inflict an injury more severe than bruising. Depending on the circumstance she will utilize other types of bolts: such as one that fires knockout gas, a second tear gas, or a third that contains a fire tipped squibb.

As part of her Longfang employment when on duty she is always equipped with a small can of mace, a taser, a heavy side pistol that fires energy capable of momentarily stunning a foe and can switch to live lethal rounds, two pairs of zip-tie restraints, a radio on her right shoulder, and a body cam on her left.

## Weaknesses

Due to the nature of her Meta-human senses, Tanuki is especially vulnerable to sudden extremes. Blinding flashes of light, attacks that can temporarily deafen, and the like take twice as long for her to overcome as they do a normal person. The sole exception is attacks like tear gas, which her healing factor will quickly render inert.

## Appearance and Personality

Overall Tanuki is quiet, thoughtful, and a very respectful young lady. Even in the Longfeng uniform she remains respectful of others and polite, refusing to 'throw her weight around' or assume positions of authority that others might view as arrogant or haughty. She understands that she is inexperienced as a superhero and law enforcement officer both and looks up to her teammates for guidance and instruction.

Nanaki Zumi is a pretty Japanese young lady whom stands five foot two, with a compact build. She weighs 98 pounds and has dark hair and eyes set against a pale skin tone. She tends to dress in a more comfortable style, typically choosing sweat pants and tee-shirts over more formal professional clothing. As a Longfang she wears the typical Longfang uniform: a navy-blue jumpsuit wit silver highlights, black utility belt and holster, silver face mask and badge with her last name and number 19522, and styled Spider design on the back.

As Tanuki she wears a mid-throat to ankle tan form-fitted body stocking with a heavy black stripe down the front and back and pinstripe on the outer seam of the leggings, black gloves, and a black encompassing face mask. Her feet are bare.

## Catchphrase/Quote

"Don't assume that because I'm inexperienced I'm incapable, too. That would be a tragic mistake."