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: 1
Tass: 30 (Gundam - as of Hokkaido Showdown), 6 (Iron Oni)
Dox: 0 (+Nightmares)
Damage:
Willpower: 3(+1)/7
Exp: 23/267
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 (26)

Alertness: 2
Artistic Expression: 4 (Costume Design)
Athetics: 2
Awareness: 2
Blatancy: 5 (Anime Related)
Do: 2 [Karma, Dhyana]

Kiaijutsu (Manipulation + Do)

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

Skills (21)

Disguise: 2
Etiquette: 1
Fastdraw: 1
Firearms: 1
Heavy Weapons: 1
Leadership: 2
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)

Your mage possesses an innately perfect sense of balance. You reduce the difficulties of all balance-related rolls (e.g., Dexterity + Athletics to walk along a narrow ledge) by two.

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 Ascension War
The easiest way for Kana to frame the Ascension War is in terms of Gundam cosmology and similar universes - the Traditions, spirits, "fantastic" races, and even Marauders, are sort of like the colonies and the Technocracy is sort of like the Earth Federation or Britannia. The Technocracy has already won the first war for Earth but has become a menace to the advancement of humanity. Static Reality is the embodiment of the proverbial gravity binding Oldtypes. In this sense, the Ascension War might be considered a war between Newtypes or Innovators and Innovade - one fights (broadly and maybe very imperfectly) for freedom and the revolution of humanity; the other is bent on conquest, control and rule.

The war can be taken in steps - you can loosen their hold and fill some of the vacuum in before moving on, but you will inevitably have to defend it against technocrats. The ultimate defeat or equally radical rearrangement of the Technocracy is an absolute prerequisite of winning the Ascension War. Saying the Ascension War must be won by winning over normal people is like saying a regular war must be won by taking all their land - you won't be able to do it unless you defeat their military and that military is the Technocracy's mages and equipment.

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 change by convincing the good technocrats to produce it from within, or in negotiating with them over the long run. Ultimately, the Technocracy as it exists 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 cannot really imagine life without modern amenities (despite historical or fantasy anime) and 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 Nazis - when you're so horrible and people know it, not many will join you.

The Technocracy vs. The Nephandi
Nephandi are a disease of the skin; the Technocracy is a disease of the heart. Kana doesn't remember who said that, but it's apt. The Nephandi are awful, sure, but almost everyone inevitably agrees they are awful and will unify against them. On the other hand, the Technocracy's attraction is more insidiously attractive to humanity even though it is slowly killing them. Moreover, the world apparently did just fine against "outer horrors" for ages before the Technocracy was even invented and any number of arrangements could replace the Technocracy in the defence of humanity. Ultimately people will step up against black, but they will settle for dark gray if it's made a convenient option. To use defence against Nephandi as an excuse for the Technocracy's existence is to have profound lack of confidence in humanity's potential.

Mass Awakening
Promoting the next evolution of humanity? Is such a thing even possible within our lifetimes?

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. Metaphysically, there is of course nothing about anime that limits the paradigm any more than any Tradition's paradigm truly limits magic. Otaku culture is simply the thing Kana enjoys most and has by far the most exposure to, so it creates a framework for the universe.

As an Orphan, Kana practices a brand of magic that is uniquely her own. To some extent, it relies on her having been obsessive with her hobby from a young age and being somewhat delusional to begin with. When she embodies a character by cosplaying, wields a device as depicted, or enacts whatever technique's ritual, it feels to her that ultimately, it should work. The actual working of magic is highly instinctive and probably won't be articulated in any formal way until Kana stops being a high school dropout.

Resemblences (or lack thereof) to Tradition Magic

Akashic Brotherhood
Kana's interpretation of Do and the mental discipline associate with it is that it is the source of other martial arts. She is able to grasp it to some extent since she is a mage, but her understanding is limited since she uses it as a way to perfect bodily control and then do something else rather than magic native to the Akashic paradigm that has been fully integrated with Do.

Celestial Chorus
A Certain Celestial Chorus.

Cult of Ecstasy
Cross-genre mimicry?

Dreamspeakers
Despite a lack of the Entropy sphere, one of the underlying assumptions in Kana's magical paradigm is that how things "should" go from fourth wall perspective has profound effects on what actually happens. This concept is like a modernised version of Baruti Dreamspeakers' mythmaking and storytelling paradigm and incidentally matches up well with fellow Orphan Liz.

Euthanatos
Hrm...

Hollow Ones
That just means gothloli, right?

Order of Hermes
An unbiased Hermitic might consider Kana to use goetia when she uses anime props or rituals to produce effects. While the number of super powers, techniques, pieces of gear, and theurgy when cosplaying.

Sons of Ether
Philosophically, those of Kana's magical devices that depend on the guise of technology follow the individualist, personal and permissive ideal of the Sons of Ether. However, Kana relies vastly less on science (not being fully educated herself) and fills the gaps with Rule of Cool.

Verbena
Some series do get pretty visceral with their special abilities!

Virtual Adepts
Rather than all things being data, all things are anime. Some of her Correspondence scene cutting abilities, series mashing and genre savvy effects bear a distant resemblence to the VA principle. She is also able to mimic Virtual Adepts in action in a very shallow way via Ghost in the Shell, Lain, and similar series.

The Technocracy
Kana's background in hypertechnology and robotics is founded on Technocratic developments in the field linked to their hardsuit and JSSDF tactical armour programs.

Elements

Tropes

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.

Katana
Self explanatory; katanas can cut through anything and will almost always do it coincidentally.

Wire Control
"Monofilament" wire finds its way into Kana's available arsenal quite often - both Natalie Lamperouge and Haruho Artaria-Jurai use them to varying degrees. Owing to its portrayal in media and how unclear normal people are regarding the relevant physics, the cutting ability of wires when wielded with suitably flashy skills is ambiguous and may be second only to a katana. Moreover, wires are understood to be potentially invisible, and so can also be actually invisible, be "already there", or pulled out of nowhere coincidentally.

Cosplay
Cosplaying a character is one of the most powerful aspects of Kana's magic as it is a focus for any magic that the character would be capable of doing, including abilities that would otherwise appear to require no other focus. When doing this, Kana is being that character and it interfers with her functioning to some extent as she becomes increasingly detached from her original self and confused as to who she is. However, permanent cosplay serves up double duty in protecting Kana's high Arcane rating.

Do
Kana uses her newly taught basic skill in Do as well as her own acrobatic talent to duplicate feats of physical combat (with varying levels of outrageousness) as a focus during battle.

Robotics
Her most recent acquired skill, Kana currently views hypertech robotics (and hypertech more generally) as her own personal rebellion against the Technocracy. The Technocracy has already written robotics into Static Reality but Modern Visual Culture has done a great deal to stretch that in popular imagination. Kana intends to use the Technocracy's own device and her own straightforward feeling to create powerful weapons that are coincidental or barely vulgar.

Cosplay Egos

Kana continues to amass these at a steady rate.

Kanako Kuga (True)

Kanako Kuga

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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