Kanako Kuga

With Liz on its shoulder, the small tactical suit screeched along the mountain road, sparks streaking from darkened asphault with every turn. For several minutes and corners, the transit wheels were the only noise, until Kana knocked on the canopy.
"Hey Liz."
"Hm?"
"You know that wasn't my first kiss," Kana said matter-of-factly as a row of sharp turn warning signs flashed past. "Just to be clear."
"It was a demon!" Liz exclaimed. "I had no control over anything! Shut up!"
"No, what I mean is it doesn't count. And us talking about it in this way makes it not count. Because you know if you let the topic fester... So like... If you let it fester, so like, ignore it and just look away and turn red, then it would count. That's how it works. So now it doesn't count."
"It was sucking your soul, not kissing you!"
"They say that about CPR!"
"It felt nice because I was eating Yang chi!"
"It felt-" Kana blinked. "WHAT?!"
"Shut up and drive!"
Kana clenched her fingers around the throttle and wrenched it to eleven. The Samurai accelerated even further and blew on down the road.

Background

Kanako Kuga was a middle class highschool girl from Toronto who Awakened and wound up on the New World Order high priority shortlist. She is the reincarnation of Ohno Miho, an Akashic lady samurai involved in the mid-19th century wars against the Technocracy's incursion into East Asia. As the NWO closed in, her former incarnation's partner, Takezo Kenshin, sacrificed his life to confront his former student turned arch-traitor Amy Lee, and saved Kana's life. Later, the combined efforts of Tia Mazu and Proteus managed to scoop her out of various vampiric entanglements and she wound up going to Winnipeg, then New York, then back to Winnipeg, before finally settling down as a member of the chantry in Vancouver.

Vital Statistics

Name: KUGA Kanako
Birthday: October 5, 1991
Player: Mal
Tradition: Orphan
Avatar: Primordial
Demeanor: Gallant (Artistry; Flamboyance)
Nature: Celebrant (Passion; Intemperance)
Arete: 5
Quint: 3
Tass: 30 (Gundam - as of Hokkaido Showdown), 6 (Iron Oni)
Dox: 0 (+Nightmares)
Damage: Willpower: 7(+1)/7
Exp: 23/259
Init: +7 Dash: 32yds

Attributes

Physical

Strength: 2
Dexterity: 4 (Acrobatically)
Stamina: 2

Social

Charisma: 3
Manipulation: 4 (Convincing)
Appearance: 3

Mental

Perception: 3
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 3

Abilities

Talents (25)

Alertness: 2
Artistic Expression: 3
Athetics: 2
Awareness: 2
Blatancy: 5 (Anime Related)
Do: 2 [Karma, Dhyana]

Kiaijutsu (Manipulation + Do)

Dodge: 3
Expression: 3
Streetwise: 1
Subterfuge: 2

Skills (20)

Disguise: 2
Etiquette: 1
Fastdraw: 1
Firearms: 1
Heavy Weapons: 1
Leadership: 1
Melee: 4 (Alchemical Weapons)
Pilot: 2
Stealth: 1
Technology: 2
Hypertechnology: 4 (Robotics)

Knowledges (10)

Computers: 1
Enigmas: 5 (Xanatos Roulette)
Linguistics: 2 (English, Japanese, Chinese)
Strategy: 2

Backgrounds

Ally: 2 (Pam, Kano)
Arcane: 5
Avatar: 5
Destiny: 1 (Tibetan BS)
Node: 1 (Wuff Apartment)
Node: 5 (Gundam; squatting at least)
Sanctum: 1 (Beneath the Gundam)
Resources: 4 (shared)

Spheres

Correspondence: 2
Entropy: 0
Forces: 3
Life: 0
Matter: 4 (Mechanical Design)
Mind: 1
Prime: 3
Spirit: 0
Time: 0

Merits and Flaws

Catlike Balance (1)
Folk Hero: (Koborokuru)

Obsession: Otaku (-2)
Child (-1)
Echoes: Wind of Fanservice (-1)

Equipment

Izanagi (Charges: 3)

Derived from the clay figure that protected Mr. Lao. This is a bracelet with three odd looking large beads and a hanging leather strap. When fastened, the bracelet's beads will open up as eyes and protect Kana from her next three wounds. One eye closes permanently for each charge used.

Chrome-plated .44 Magnum Pistol (Hit Difficulty: 6 (Str 3)/Dmg 6/Rate 2/Clip 6/Range 35)
Vibro Blade (Hit Difficulty: 4 (w/ uplink)/Dmg: Str+2/Ignores 3d of armour/Subtracts 3 successes from any parry by non-magical weapon)
Hardsuit Quint Battery (9 Quint) salvageable?

Shamuhato no Hagoromo (Arete: 4; Matter: 4, Prime: 3; Quintessence: 20/20)

Imagine Breaker (Prime 3, Cost: 1/Use) - Parma Magicka style countermagick with a base difficulty of 6. Can counter over an area with appropriate movements.

The Things It Cannot Cut Are Next To None (Prime 2, Cost: None) - Deals aggravated damage to supernatural beings and is able to strike dematerialised spirits. This mode activates automatically once the sash turns into a weapon.

Multiple Forms (Matter 4, Prime 2)

Sash - (Cost: None) A thin sash of cloth, the sword will revert to this form when out of power.

Katana- (Cost: 1 to Activate) Hit Difficulty: 6, Dmg: Str+3

Riful Mode - (Cost: 2/Scene) - Four ribbon blades (require multi-tasking to use), and fanservice armour. (+3 Melee; +3 Armour); or

EX Riful Mode - (Cost: 2 Quint/turn), Immobile storm of ribbons. (+3 Melee dice; +6 Armour; +6 Metal Health Levels regenerating at 2/round)

Guymelef Frame GMF-11X ALLHiME (Test Type)

8 Heavy Soak

Movement is 30+3Dex due to size.

Arete roll (Str+Ath ritual) to determine capabilities: Its Dexterity is -4 but each success on the roll gives it a dot to distribute between Strength and Dexterity.

Magic and Philosophy

World View

The Technocracy
Kana's experiences with the Technocracy throughout her short career as a mage has left her hateful and embittered towards them. Although her antipathy began for personal reasons (ruining her life and killing her friend), it has broadened through understanding of what the Technocracy does on a wider scale (genocide of entire species, the destruction of worlds, drowning the spirit of humanity with stasis, creeping ineffectiveness against demonic corruption, and so on). She grudgingly recognises that there may be good individual technocrats (though most are bad!) but does not believe in inciting them to change by convincing the good technocrats to change it from within, or negotiating with them in the long term. Ultimately, the Technocracy is inimical to humanity's wellbeing.

The Technocracy vs. The Technocratic Paradigm
They're different. The technocratic way is a great thing to have as a baseline because it provides ordinary people with the foundation for their quality of life. Kana finds true throwbacks who want to toss the whole table over to be frankly kind of kooky, and maybe nascent well-intentioned extremist villains. More importantly, the paradigm is self-sustaining because (for good reason) most people like it. Now that it is established it no longer requires the Technocracy to maintain - only the respect of factions that otherwise might be able to change it.

Nephandi
Are horrible, yes. In fact, they're so horrible that they are dangerous only on a personal level. It's like Nazi's - when you're so horrible and people know it, not many will join you.

The Ascension War

Paradigm

Kanamagic is based on the belief that depictions in otaku culture (anime, manga, and some videogames) are a valid and meaningful reflection of reality. There are two basic pillars of her magic:

1. Common tropes, story elements, and a reality that has an objective morality, working for one side or another in a given situation.

2. Becoming a character, replicating an item of power, or emulating a situation so depicted allows the duplication of the relevant effects.

Generally, the first type requires her to be acting in a certain way. The second type requires some degree of artistic work (making her something of an Artomancer rather than a Technomancer) and is limited to finite specific abilities.

Elements

Eye Magic
Curious looking eyes easily justifies a broad spectrum of magical effects in anime. Most of Kana's cosplay egos will have a magical eye or eyes with abilities that fall under a single underlying principle. This principle is unifying but it can be an exceedingly broad or powerful principle, including ones not fully covered by her spheres since characters are rarely able or willing to use the full breadth and depth of their powers most of the time anyway. The visible manifestation within the eye can usually be coincidental as a trick of lighting, contact lenses, or more sophisticated trickery, but many of the easy effects of eye magic are quite vulgar - as expected considering the dramatic visual nature of the paradigm.

Wire Control
"Monofilament" wire finds its way into Kana's available arsenal quite often as it can cut or not cut almost anything, be invisible, and materialise from "nowhere" quite coincidentally.

Cosplay Egos

Kanako Kuga
Kana is Kana when she isn't cosplaying anything in particular, although even then, she'll usually at least be in a Japanese school uniform. Kana was herself through her development as a mage during Season 1 and does occasionally use her real name, especially amongst close allies, chantrymates, and people she doesn't think she can fool anyway. In some ways, this persona is vulnerable, but it is also flexible since it is highly capable of vulgar magick.

Natalie Lamperouge
The cosplay of Season 2, Natalie was a dark, icy, and vaguely loli tsundere who goes to school in serafuku by day while sometimes appearing by night as the Blackrock Shooter (making it a cosplay-within-a-cosplay). Her main role was that of a zippy, sword-wielding city guardian with blurring speed and an obviously magical left eye. [1]

Haruho Artaria-Jurai
A cosplay of Season 3, Haruho is an aloof but cunning daughter of someone terribly important. She has myriad Yakuza connections and runs the secretive and mysterious The Artaria Foundation. Unlike Natalie, she is highly capable of strategerizing and very skilled at mahjong. However, her combat paradigm is relatively limited.

Hideki and Q1
A cosplay within a cosplay. This is Haruho personally doing footwork in the name of The Artaria Foundation. She dressed up as a giant bioroid while Shu dresses up as a cyber ninja.

U.N.Owen and U.F.Owen
Kana is known as Kana in Okhun (where she is a folk hero), a part of the Hollow Earth that she saved from some marauding iron oni raiders. During their brief airborne antics there, Kana and Pam borrowed wings from Flandre Scarlet and Nue Houjuu of Touhou.

Reimu Hakurei ~Sun Priestess version~
After it was revealed that the strange Miko in the caverns was actually Tokomandilin in bad disguise, Kana temporarily replaced her as a Reimu Hakurei variation, unleashing the sun shard's power in a massive final spellcard.

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