Huntsman Sheet
Personality
On the surface, Kohaku is something of a wallflower—quiet, shy, and bashful. She isn't especially good at socializing, and often prefers to cede the limelight to other, stronger personalities. It certainly isn't out of a disdain, though. Given the chance to come out of her shell, Kohaku is a warm, friendly, even sensitive girl. She simply lacks the finer social skills to properly articulate herself, a relic of her upbringing in relative isolation. At her core she is empathetic and nurturing and dislikes conflict, attempting to mediate or avoid it when possible.
That is not to say she is cowardly, however. In the face of injustice or abuse she deems unacceptable, so can become exceptionally obstinate and defensive. This is especially true if the injustices in question are laid upon those unwilling, or unable, to stand up for themselves. It is not an exaggeration to say she has something of a hero complex born of the guilt she feels for how she led her life before arriving at Shade. This guilt hangs heavy on her, even though few would be able to see the effects through the facade she puts on. Fundamentally, she considers herself a bad person, unworthy to receive the kindness she herself tries so hard to espouse as a result of her sins. This self-loathing compounds her difficulties connecting with others.
Although her good nature and youthful appearance can lead some to believe she is naive, Kohaku possesses quite the formidable guile. She is a practiced liar, and quite good at putting her empathy to work in manipulating others by pulling on heart strings where they lay. It isn't something she particularly enjoys doing, but old habits die hard, and it has gotten her out of cleaning duty more than once.
Appearance
Standing at an unimpressive five feet in height, with an accompanying lithe build, Kohaku does not cut an especially intimidating figure. Her features are soft, childlike, and possess an innocence unsuitable for the lands which bore her, or the occasional hardness that inhabits her large, chartreuse eyes. Her skin is shockingly pale for a nomad, remaining a healthy, unblemished shade of alabaster through means both practical and genetic. Her velvety locks follow in its example, a pale, sandy blonde mop that lightens in places to a near-white. In both texture and shade it matches the fur on perhaps the most eye-catching feature she possesses—two exceptionally large, vulpine ears that jut expressively out from the sides of her head, replacing the those one might find on a Human. Far from the only indication of her Faunus heritage, a plush fox tail extends from the base of her spine, swishing to and fro with the highs and lows of her emotional state.
“Uhm... Do I need to say something here?”
| N a m e: |Kohaku Nanashi
| Alias|Nickames|Titles: |Kohaku
| G e n d e r: |Female
| A g e: |16
| Kingdom of Origin: |Vacuo
| Race: |Faunus
| History: |Kohaku was born some sixteen years ago to an unlikely set of parents. Her mother was a chieftain that ruled over one of Vacuo's more sizeable bandit clans, and her father was a Huntsman hailing from Anima. The specifics of their relationship were lost on young Kohaku—whether they parted amicably or bitterly, the girl's father was long gone by the time she could remember anything, and any questions as to his greater identity or whereabouts only seemed to trouble her mother in ways few other matters did. She learned from an early age not to ask those questions, not for fear of reprisal, but to spare her remaining parent any undue pain. Instead she contented herself to live among her mother's tribesmen, a child among killers and thieves.
Against all expectation, her upbringing was somewhat idyllic... at least insofar as much one could describe a nomadic, desert upbringing as idyllic. The clan was among the most successful in its region, and under the strong leadership of her mother, managed to subsume several smaller clans and extort sizable bounties from the trade routes that snaked through its carefully managed territory. But in resource scarce Vacuo, prosperity was scant without its drawbacks.
To have plenty was to draw the eyes and ire of those who would covet it. There were was always an ambitious upstart looking to wrest control of the clan away, both within and without, and when they couldn't bring down the woman in charge directly, they directed their eyes to what weak points she had—namely, her young daughter. Kohaku suffered more than one attempt on her life, or ill-fated kidnapping attempt in her youth. Each attempt thwarted, each one punished in ways far more horrific than would be allowed to trickle down to the young Faunus. Try as her mother might to keep her child insulated from the harsh world around them, the sensitive Kohaku could see the worry she caused. She resolved to become stronger, so that she would no longer be a burden.
At the age of ten, she summoned up her courage and demanded her mother teach her how to fight. How to be like one of the clan. Large as the matriarch's shadow loomed over her, the girl had expected to be denied. Instead, she her mother wistfully accepted, declaring that Kohaku had inherited "her father's fire" after all. While her contemporaries in other Kingdoms prepared at prestige combat schools, a firm hand and the wastes around her would mold Kohaku into the warrior she wished to be.
Mold her it did. While she had been largely sheltered from the brutality of deserts in her youth, her brave declaration shed this veil of nicety overnight. She trained at battle and stealth and bushcraft, to live and fight and live outside the confines of a well-hidden encampment. It was hard, brutal work, beyond what hardship she had experienced in the world up until that point—having to hold off on bathing until the rains returned was of little compare to watching the Grimm descend upon a settlement so they could pick through the scraps, or hearing the strained rasp of a caravan guard's last breaths as he sunk into the blade in his back.
But she labored to survive, and thrive, in her new role. Something she had succeeded in; young as she was, she quickly became an accomplished raider among her people, a feat no doubt attributed to her heritage as much as her determination. It was all she could have hoped for. Long were the days when she needed to fear knives in the dark, or wallow in the knowledge that she was a vulnerability that weighed heavy on the mind of the woman she owed her life to. She was praised, even. A reliable fighter. A useful asset. A suitable heir.
But that praise was all but empty in the face of what she had to do to receive it. It had been easy to live with when she was little. When her mother came back from the wilds with a new toy or a shiny trinket to delight her with, she needn't think of where it came from. Of who it came from. But having bloodied her hands, having taken part in her familial career, she could only wilt. This wasn't what she wanted to do. This wasn't why she had worked so hard. She didn't want to hurt people anymore, even if hurting people was the only way of life they—that she—had ever known. Maybe her mother had been right to keep her walled off in the camps, hidden away from reality for however long it could have lasted. She wasn't cut out to be a cutthroat.
So she summoned that resolve that had led her down the path of banditry in the first place. Made a plan, packed her belongings. She didn't even have the courage to say goodbye. Instead, with a note pinned to the floor of her tent, Kohaku disappeared into the night on the eve of her sixteenth birthday. If she couldn't walk the path of one parent, then perhaps she could walk the path of another. She could track. She could fight. She had even had her Aura unlocked. Even if she knew no other way of life, she knew there was one place that never had enough capable killers: the Huntsmen Academies. Her journey led her to Shade, and the rest, as they say, was history.
| Semblance: |Kohaku's Semblance, Haze, allows her to superheat things around her. She needs merely be aware of an area, possess the requisite Aura to generate the necessary heat, and have a direct line of contact to the place in question—most commonly through the air, though she is also capable of using the ground—and she can affect drastic increases in the temperature there. On the surface level, it is a very offensive Semblance, suited for dealing horrific injuries or property damage should she will it.
Years of practice, however, have led Kohaku to carefully hone its usage in a variety of more creative, less extreme way. By rapidly heating the area around her, for instance, she is capable of creating sudden updrafts to misdirect projectiles or soften falls. The rapid expansion of air can be used to hasten or impede movement, and more than once she has used her abilities to form rudimentary mirages in the wastes of her homeland. She even managed to utilize it to form a localized thunderstorm at one point.
For all its potential, destructive or otherwise, it does have its limitations. Like all Semblances, its output is directly linked to the amount of Aura spent on its use. Consistently using it to create truly extreme differences in heat is considerably taxing. As the initial heat generation is localized on her position, utilizing it at long-ranges is more difficult than doing so at closer ones. Lastly, as she requires an indirect link between herself and the target, impeding this link makes it challenging to use. Creating gusts of wind to disrupt searing air, destroying the dividing ground, or ducking behind terrain all hamper the effectiveness her ability.
While relatively insignificant to its combat potential, possession of Haze has given Kohaku an innate resistance to extreme temperatures. While it is likely a trait meant to insulate her from the effects of her own powers, it has been of greater help in surviving the deadly climate of Vacuo's wilds.
| Weapon and Fighting Style: |Kohaku's primary weapon is Requiem, a Multi-purpose Projected Dust Caster (MPDC). To call it a weapon would be considered insulting to those who painstakingly crafted their own at Remnant's many combat schools—it is little more than Atlesian salvage cobbled together into a miraculously functional staff. Canisters of Dust housed at the base of the clunky, rusting head feed into a central projector mechanism at the center, where it is then ignited and shaped based on her will. The staff has room to house four standard sized canisters, which Kohaku fills with the most common four—red, blue, dark orange, and white—to create fire, water, earth and wind based phenomenon respectively. The staff also functions as a foci for her Semblance, extending her range significantly.
Her fighting style is equal parts evasive and crafty. Utilizing the agility afforded to her by her stature and physique, she deftly maneuvers into mid-range against her opponents. Here, where her Semblance and casting potential are most optimally deployed, she wreaks havoc with the multitude of tactical opportunities her Dust-based fighting style affords her, though she typically avoids using the more destructive or lethal options in her repertoire.
Despite her stated preference for Dust casting, Kohaku is almost always in possession of a weathered, curved knife commonly used by the nomadic tribes of Vacuo's desert regions. Details from her entry examination would imply she is significantly more proficient in its use than she is with Requiem.
| Strengths and Weakness: |Kohaku is a product of her environment, as contrary to that as her appearance would indicate. Beyond her significant combat potential, she is surprisingly agile, talented at going undetected in a variety of environments, is a skilled in desert survival, and adept at jury-rigging technology. Her Faunus heritage, beyond earning her scorn from the more traditional inhabitants of the Kingdom, bestows her with incredibly sharp senses of hearing and eyesight. She also possesses a level of grit one would expect from a future Huntress of Vacuo; to call her stubborn once she sets her mind to a task is an understatement.
Her weaknesses are readily apparent upon looking upon her and, if one was so inclined, learning of her background. She is short, and not especially powerful physically, making her unsuited to feats of strength or physical robustness. Her upbringing has made her clannish and distinctly lacking in charisma, and she lacks the greater understanding of technology and academia many of her peers possess—prior to arriving at Shade, she was entirely illiterate. This has not changed much in the interim between the entrance examination and the start of the school year.
| Greatest Fear/Fatal Flaw: |Kohaku, for all the resolve she tries to muster, has many fears. Some of them minor, like her belief that she will find no acceptance in this world; that her peers at Shade will shun her for her past deeds should they ever surface, and that her clansmen would never again accept her for the weakness that drove her from them in the first place.
On a higher scale, she fears herself. Her few years in the wastes taught her that properly motivated, she is capable of monstrous deeds, and she wishes never again to engage in them. Equally, she fears that this unwillingness to do what so often must be done—no matter how unpalatable—makes her unworthy to be called a Huntress. The two sides of this struggle wax and wane, making her indecisive at critical junctures. A fatal flaw for those who wish to hunt the real monsters that stalk Remnant.
| Miscs : |Cashmere wishes it could be as soft as those ears. Seriously. It's a problem.
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