Katze

Former Furniture of Tanagura's top Blondie, Iason Mink, Katze was made the Tanagura Representative of the Black Market after discovering secrets about the world of Amoi, and impressing his Blondie master.

Katze plays an integral and complex part in bringing Iason and the mongrel Riki together.

## **Physical Appearance**

Katze was considered quite beautiful. It was hard to determine his age just by looking at him, and he had a somewhat androgynous air about him. He was also quite tall—around, if not over 190cm, only slightly shorter than Iason. In the novels, his eyes were described as ash-gray and that they almost looked silver.

His face has repeatedly been described as beautiful (美貌), enough so to be fit for Midas' highest-class establishments and on par with the top-tier workers. However, marring that beauty was a cruel scar on his left cheek, left there by Iason as a result of Katze's hacking incident.

He was slender in both face and body and had delicate features which didn't suit his character.

### **Katze's Scar**

*"I couldn't keep the excitement to myself, so I let others in on the secret. But you can see what it got me,"* Katze said, fingering the long scar across his face. *"Iason just told me I deserved it, with that thin smile of his."* (V3 p128)

Iason's own hand had left this scar on his face. Even now, he could not purge the memory from his mind. Mending the deep gouge was a simple medical procedure, but one that Katze had never contemplated. He kept the scar as a mark of his fidelity to Iason, just as the name he was known by about the Black Market -- Katze the Scarface -- served as a reminder of his youthful naiveté and inexperience. (V4 p45)

Plastic surgery these days could easily erase that scar from his cheek. Riki suspected leaving it there intentionally served as a kind of warning. He didn't earn a living with his face. That mark alone said that he was a man who would do what had to be done. (V2 p86)

The scar on his face played across the inorganic beauty of his features. This was the first time Guy saw it up close. (V8 p168)

In front of Iason, Katze's old scar on his cheek burned. This burning sensation was fear, which struck Katze down to the marrow. It was forever etched into his very identity. Katze couldn't escape this. It was forever an inescapable, unavoidable part of his being. One look from Iason was enough to remind him of it. (V7 p102-3)

The wound ran like a rift across the attractive visage of his fixed, emotionless countenance...that scar had earned Katze the nickname "Subzero Scarface." (V2 p105)

### Personality

Katze was exceedingly clever as well as taciturn.

When Riki first met him, he felt that Katze exuded the kind of cold aura that reminded him of Iason. Although he didn't exactly hate people, he seemed to have little interest in anybody outside those he met in the course of his business. He didn't pry in other people's affairs but he also kept his own personal life to himself.

## **Origins**

**Mongrel Identity**

Katze harbored no sentimental feeling toward his own home. He had roots in Guardian and Ceres , but at the age of thirteen, he'd been rendered a eunuch and installed as "furniture" in Eos. He hadn't only lost his ability to reproduce, but his ability to empathize with the fragility of human emotions. Even a sense of nostalgia was foreign to him. He knew too well that Guardian was just a polluted paradise. (V6 p11)

Katze had no sense of identity or kinship with anything to do with Ceres... The depth of loathing he felt for anything and everything to do with the slums exceeded [others' fear of him] by several orders of magnitude. The loathing was never directed at Riki -- which surprised even Katze. (V8 p55-6)

### **Childhood in Guardian**

*"I was an insufferable prick who was good at reading faces and proud of it."* (V4 p121)

Katze had delighted in impressing himself upon the block mothers and sisters. A brat with inflated pride and his nose in the air who sought out praise as the best and the brightest. (V4 p121)

If he'd known that having a good head on his shoulders, that being a reasonable and mannered child was the number one qualification for Furniture, he would have acted the exact opposite. (V4 p121)

### **As Furniture**

    "You don't get a break without giving something up. So I took care of pets. Furniture is disposable -- you do what you're told to in order to survive. You shut down your emotions and you deal, even if you have to punish someone from the same place you are. That's what it took to be suitable for a Blondie. You weren't a man anymore, but as long as you didn't try to be more than what you were destined for, you could be content."*(V3 p121)Katze had been an appliance in Iason's household. Eos Furniture. He knew how Pets were handled. He knew more than he could ever forget. And especially how Iason treated his personal property. He couldn't purge that knowledge from his mind. (V4 p44)*

*"When I was furniture,"* Katze explained, *"I had no use for the snitching and backbiting. But there was something in it for me. For five years, I looked down at Midas. And it felt good. It was like there was nothing in this world I was afraid of."*(V3 p126)

### **Ironies**

Katze was castrated and installed as living furniture in Eos. That he'd inherited that same business and was now doing the same thing was one of life's darker ironies. (V4 p112, V6 p11)

## **Katze Incident**

*"I knew Guardian was a toy in the hands of Tanagura ...but I was 'curious. Using the terminal in my room, I spent half a year searching the databases... The security was good, though.... But every system has its holes. Press them in the right way, and the system can be compromised, even without the proper passwords.... Because access to the databases was time-limited, I couldn't get everything I needed all at once. But the thrill of cutting off the connection one step ahead of security excited my missing parts.... A slum mongrel installed as furniture had pilfered the secrets of Tanagura -- and without anyone noticing." (V3 p126-8)*

During his tenure as Iason Mink's Furniture, Katze decided to investigate the connection between the mysteries of Guardian (the Ceres orphanage) and Tanagura's involvement. It took half a year to hack into Guardian's security systems, but Katze eventually discovered that the mongrel population was actually carefully controlled by the Tanagura Elite. A Eugenics program had been in place (one would assume ever since the Ceres Independence Movement ) to keep the majority of mongrels infertile, supply the Elite with Furniture from the best mongrel stock, and provide the secret laboratories of Guardian with freshly harvested organs for use in scientific experiments.

see Organ Farm for more

### **Consequences**

*"I couldn't keep the excitement to myself, so I let others in on the secret. But you can see what it got me.... [Iason] knew from the start -- he was only waiting for the day I'd slip up. It was all part of the fun. That's the way they do things there."* (V3 p127-8)

Rather than killing Katze for his actions, however, Iason shocked his peers by appointing Katze as his Tanagura Representative for the Black Market.

*"Raoul, when I see someone with talent I make it a point not to concern myself with whatever their background might be. Whether it be one of your experiments or a slum mongrel, I'll use whoever I can as long as I can."* Iason shrugged, knowing that Raoul still didn't support this decision. (Dark Erogenous, Track 3)

Katze had committed the most lethal act of betrayal a furniture could, and yet he'd been granted clemency according to the whims of his owner. This was in spite of the advice from Iason's colleagues, who viewed life through the lens of a strict meritocracy. They considered Iason's actions equivalent to digging through the trash. (V6 p11)

## **Subzero Scarface, Black Market**

Subzero Scarface, Katze's handle in the black market. (V2 p105)

The man who had access to that bleeding-edged cyberworld. (V4 p10)

[No one knew] the precise details of Katze's rise as a broker. Rumor had it that the scar on his cheek was a vestige of that past. Wearing it openly as a badge of honor and taking on the moniker of "Scarface" presented -- more than his desire not to be derided as a greenhorn -- a threatening stance to his surroundings. (V2 p143)

### **Duties**

    "*If you're thinking about getting along in the market, you'd better remember the name Katze.*" (OVA 1)

Katze had a corner on almost every market involving Ceres. He fenced the cash and credit cards and stolen goods lifted from the Midas tourist trade. He was the agent for Guardian. A distributor in the drug trade. And a few fingers in many other pots. He was, as Iason called him, a man for all seasons. The right person in the right place at the right time. The slum mongrel who uniquely made good. (V4 p110)

### **Status as Tanagura Representative**

    When Katze [was hired by Iason and] inherited the job from his predecessor, the shock to Guardian was inestimable.... (V4 p113)

The shock showed when Katze appeared before their eyes. The in-your-face shock of a piece of furniture becoming the commercial representative for Tanagura.... (V4 p113)

There was no way [Manon Kuger] could tolerate this man, who had forgotten the gift of being brought up in Guardian and now arrogantly looked down his nose at them [in judgment]. (V4 p113)

Using Katze as a lightning rod to exacerbate any discontent with Tanagura would allow [Iason] to make a clean sweep of the incompetents leeching off Guardian. Tanagura's plans for the organ farm were undoubtedly nearing the next stage as well. (V4 p122)

### **Office Hideout**

From the outside [streets of Flare (Area 2), what appeared to be a dilapidated pharmacy on the street level held a secret passageway to Katze's hideout. (V7 p101)

Katze's offices were in the sub-basement.(V2 p94)

Tokuma Shoten edition (2009-10) – Saichi NagatoKatze 2-3.jpgCrystal Bunko edition (2001-07) – Katsumi MichiharaAs seen in the 1994 OVA.As seen in the 2012 anime series.As seen in the 2012 anime series.
#### **Pharmacy Secret Entry**

[Riki] passed through the back door of a 24 hour drug store. That was the entrance reserved for use by the couriers, A scan of his right palm opened and closed the door. (V2 p94)

The door to the pharmacy was specially treated for climate control. The temperature on each side was drastically different. (V8 p89)

see Technology: Climate Control

The sub-basement was accessed by means of a custom-made elevator... Replacement parts were impossible to get for the ancient electric elevator unless special-ordered. Riki didn't know how many floors below street level Katze's office was. There were no panels or indicator lights in the elevator to specify floor. The elevator simply stopped where Katze had his fortress... (V2 p94)

Lhassa \*Contradiction (?!) (V4 p10)

see Midas: Flare (Area 2)

## **Personality and Intelligence**

    Like everybody else, Katze loved himself first and foremost. Even if that meant remaining in this dark and gloomy servitude for the rest of his life. (V4 p45)

By the time [Riki and Katze had first met], Katze had already cleansed his body of the last drops of human emotion. Riki had wondered on more than a few occasions if Katze wasn't really human, but an android. Apparently, he hadn't been too far off. (V3 p115)

The impressive scar-faced man was giving off a vibe that was already creeping Riki out. (V2 p84-5)

On the one hand, like Katze, Manon [Kuger] had once been heralded as the brightest mind seen since the beginning of Guardian. (V4 p115)

[Chairman Judd Kuger] needed prodigies like Katze in order to keep the intellectual inbreeding at bay. (V4 p116)

Put differently, watching a prodigious talent like Katze rot on the vine as Eos furniture and then pull himself up -- Judd had to bow his head in amazement and admiration. (V4 p116)

## **Closeness with Others**

### **Katze and Iason**

*"Do you doubt that if his son had screwed up sufficiently to take down the entire clan, Kuger would love him just the same?"* For a moment, Katze's eyes opened wide. He had the feeling he was hearing Iason say something he'd never heard before or would again. A second later he wasn't even sure he'd heard it at all. Iason raised an eyebrow. *"You find that strange? My use of the word* love*?"* (V4 p18)

*"What do you think?"* Katze was startled. Never did Katze ever expect Iason to ask for his advice on anything. Usually, such questions were confirmation of intent on the part of Iason. This was different; Iason was actually asking for Katze's opinion. (V7 p103)

Katze could detect better than anyone the slightest change in degree of Iason's voice, a change that could lend a single word. (V4 p10)

Katze wanted to be sure he and Iason were on the same page. Though they always were. "I understand," Katze said and bowed deeply. He would do what had to be done, whatver that required. (V4 p24)

### **Katze and Riki**

    Katze as well had probably fallen under Riki's spell. Calling Riki a slum mongrel just like himself was a lie. Even handicapping the race and calling the outcome a draw, Riki was the superior breed... He wasn't a worthless mongrel that, when all the stupidity was beaten out of him, was an empty sack. With a little polishing, this unpromising rough stone became a gem. Riki was that kind of ore. And the joy known by the prospector was what Katze had experienced himself. *His prize*. He wouldn't let his hopes for Riki die. When Iason's whimsical mood passed, Katze planned to keep on using Riki as his apprentice. He would bring out the gleaming brilliance that lay within. (V4 p41)

Riki couldn't help but be conscious of the fault lines in his relationship with Katze — there were cracks there that couldn't easily be mended. (V3 p107)

*"Don't do anything stupid,"* Katze spoke with concern. Between them there was now a shared bond, of having their manhood carved away from them. (V8 p147-8)

## **Gallery**

As seen in the 1992 OVA.As seen in the 1992 OVA.As seen in the 1992 OVA.As seen in the promo art for the 1992 OVA.Red hair edited - Tokuma Shoten edition (2009-10) – Saichi NagatoTokuma Shoten edition (2009-10) – Saichi NagatoAs seen in the 2012 anime series.As seen in concept art for the 2012 anime series.