Name: Natsumi FujikawaAge: 25Gender: FemaleAppearanceNatsumi is a young Japanese woman with long red hair (formerly black) and brown eyes. She stands at 160 cm and has a slender, feminine build. In everyday life, she wears fairly mundane clothing, though she likes to put in some effort to look nice. When on the job with the DDF, she wears a fire-resistant black bodysuit.
Image by Miura-n315PersonalityNatsumi is a kind, polite, and reserved girl. She is diligent and thoughtful, but nervous under pressure. She likes to be social and make friends with her co-workers, but she isn’t all that good at carrying a conversation. What she lacks in confidence, she does make up for in loyalty and supportiveness. In her free time, she likes to read a variety of books, from fantasy to educational. (She’s not above smutty romance novels, though she’ll try to deny it.) She also enjoys challenging video games, though she feels a bit shy about that supposedly unfeminine activity.
SkillsNatsumi is generally sharp and analytical, if given enough space to think things over. She has a degree in chemistry and possesses a bunch of other random knowledge from books she’s read. She’s also pretty good at action games, though that doesn’t tend to translate to real life fighting skill.
Contracted Shadow: Suzaku, the Vermilion BirdSuzaku is a nature spirit native to the lands of East Asia, representing fire, summer, and the south. Being a primal spirit, it doesn’t speak but communicates directly into Natsumi’s mind with abstract emotions and intuitions. She doesn’t fully understand its thoughts and desires, but one thing it definitely wants is to burn away the unholy taint of the demons.
Image by GenzomanContract Type: PossessionContract Rank: BContract AbilitiesIn her normal form, Natsumi has a minor resistance to heat, able to touch boiling water or a hot pan without pain or injury. When possessed by Suzaku, her eyes glow and her hair turns into semi-solid fire, retaining the same volume but dancing around like flames. Her fiery hair burns things on contact, but is fairly weak by default. While in this state, she becomes immune to mundane fire (up to ~1200 °C). This resistance doesn’t extend to her clothes, so she wears a special fire-resistant suit while on the job.
While possessed, she can generate fire from any part of her body. She primarily conjures it from her hands as a form of attack, creating large jets of red flame that can rapidly burn wood and flesh. By creating small but powerful jets of fire from her hands and feet, she can propel herself to fly at high speed. The boots of her battle outfit have many small holes in the soles to facilitate this. She can also empower her fiery hair, turning it hotter and elongating it up to a few meters in length, then controlling it like a burning whip for close-range combat.
The fire she creates is to some extent tied to her emotions. When overcome with powerful emotion, she can generate larger flames more quickly. She is aware of this effect, but because she is naturally quite reserved and timid, she hasn’t made much use of it and doesn’t know the full extent to which it could empower her.
Lastly, she can choose to concentrate her fire into smaller blue flames that burn at up to 2000 °C, capable of melting steel. However, her heat resistance doesn’t reach that high, so those flames will burn her at a similar rate that normal fire would burn a normal human. She has experimented with this ability in a controlled environment, but has never used it in battle.
Brief BackstoryNatsumi had a fairly normal childhood in Tokyo. She was a gifted child who did well at school and soon developed quite a high opinion of her academic talents. Like many, she was raised with the Shinto religion, but she wasn’t very devout, instead favouring the empirical. After high school, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She intended to follow up with a master’s after that, but things panned out very differently.
One day, a demon appeared while Natsumi was out in the city. Although it was only a Beast-class, the DDF was not yet on the scene, leading to a panic. While others scattered and fled, Natsumi was paralyzed with indecision until it was too late. Once the demon was in view, running away would only alert it, so she hid instead, with little success. Feeling helpless and betrayed by her supposed intellect, she desperately prayed to any kami who might be listening to save her. For reasons she still doesn’t quite understand, Suzaku answered her call, initiating a shadow contract. In a blur of emotion, she incinerated the attacking demon. When the DDF arrived shortly after, they found her stunned and confused, with most of her clothes burned away.
Once brought to safety, she realised that her hair had been permanently turned red by the contract. The DDF explained what had happened to her and offered to enrol her in their academy. She was initially reluctant, arguing that she wasn’t a fighter and shouldn’t be trusted with superpowers. But she ultimately agreed for the greater good.
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