Koneko

[Koneko]

Koneko {子猫}

Age Appearance: 18

Actual Age: 207

Gender: Female

Height: 5'7"

Build: Athletic, Small hips, Slightly busty

Sexuality: Bi, Female pref.

Yokai Type: Tiger Daiyokai/Japanese Dragon Hybrid

Battle Music: Rapid as Wildfires

Personality

Koneko is fiery at heart, valuing her skills as a fighter and knowledgeable weapon-user above much else about herself, though outwardly is calm and even-tempered at base. Having caused notable destruction against humans on the mainland in the past, she now strives to be at peace with humans rather than antagonize them, seeing herself as having little honor of her own anymore and wishing to redeem that honor by becoming more like a guardian spirit as her dragon heritage inclines. Preferring to keep her eyes forward than dwelling on her past, it's seldom she opens up to anyone about any aspects of it aside from those she trusts closely to even mention it lest it become relevant to an issue at hand - even then it may be mentioned with great hesitance. Presenting herself with a more masculine demeanor, she hides the feminine side of herself to avoid being seen as weak and delicate or being treated as little more than a woman, often taking great offense to being treated in such manners unless done so respectfully. She also can be very decided in her choices, whether made out of arrogance or intellect, and values those she considers close to her, becoming very protective over them to a stubborn and sometimes ferocious degree if she finds them to be in danger. Strongly disliking being pushed around, she has a habit of unleashing a sharp tongue on others, whether meaning to or not, and will attempt to get under other's skin by using insults in a fight or in general if in a snippy mood. This sharp tongue she will also use as a tactic in battle, often trash-talking to help cloud her foe's judgement. She also has grown somewhat accustomed to mimicking human emotions to blend in despite not fully understanding the complexity, but her ears and tail can give away how she is actually feeling at a given moment.

Wandering the countryside of the Sengoku Jidai, she presents herself as a ronin and often uses her power to disguise as a human male so as not to scare the humans she will mingle with while occasionally flirting with other women for both interest and information should she seek it. Due to her mixed heritage as a daiyokai/dragon hybrid, Koneko often finds little acceptance from yokai or dragons alike, much like hanyou tend to be treated, though there are occasions some come across her and show their respect to her bloodlines. This combination comes with it's own positives and negatives: notably the abilities and powers of a full daiyokai melded with sacred powers of a dragon, yet these powers do not always mesh well and the sacred powers can cause her harm on their own from overtly strong bursts or overuse. The naturally opposing nature of her powers mixed with the fact tigers and dragons are enemies at base can at time lead up to loss of control over herself when pushed to enter an angry rage, wildly attacking both friend and foe alike depending on who appears to be the biggest threat at the current moment she enters it. This blind rage tends to be rare since she tends to approach situations calmly and with discipline, but seeing friends she holds close to her get hurt can easily tip her over the line. During the waning crescent moon, she loses her daiyokai powers for the night, becoming a full dragon and temporarily gaining a little extra wisdom while losing some strength, but she dares only use her powers during the middle of the night unless worth the running the risk of miscalculating daybreak and a potential loss of control over her powers.

Appearance

Human-Like Forms: Koneko's appearance comes across fairly strongly like that of a Hanyou, though it is also easy to mistake her as nothing more than a cat yokai save for the six scales at the end of her tail. The most unusual part of her appearance is the cat nose adorning her human face and the seeming double fangs on the upper half of her mouth. The main clue she is essentially a full daiyokai happens to be the stripe markings scattered across her body, doubling as a sign of her tiger heritage. She can hide her appearance and look human for awhile thanks to having been taught minorly how to change her appearance for short periods, and will often change her appearance to look fully masculine. When she is angry or using her powers, her irises will glow brightly, though pushing her powers or entering a rage will bring out more of her dragon features. The first sign she's is a mane that appears down her tail before the rest of the features emerge: scales on her face/legs/ears/forearms in tandem with her feet changing to digitigrade and horns appearing on her head. When she loses her Daiyokai powers during her night, her appearance changes to looking more like that of a normal daiyokai, gaining select parts of her dragon features. (shown under pictures)

Daiyoki Form: Koneko is able to transform into her true form at will, but often finds it a bother to do so unless there is a very good reason. In this form her body is at base more tiger-like, though elongated more than normal with an extended neck and a mane running the full length from head to tail and down her elbows. On her head she has a trio of scales on her snout, ears that are lower-set on the sides of her head adorned by scales, and a set of horns raising from her head. Her front claws have four digits with opposable thumbs and her back paws end in only three, each limb protected on the top by rock-hard scales. The longest part of her body is her tail which ends in her fanned scales and a large tuft of fur. Between her horns can float a magical item known as a wisdom pearl and he maximum shoulder height is a little shorter than Sesshomaru's, though her body length is far longer. (shown under pictures)

Clothing/Armor

Koneko normally dresses very simply in a simple dark-blue kimono with a cream-colored shitagi underneath and complimented by a matching pleated hakama that remains open by her feet. She wears tabi that match her shitagi and a pair of zori that tie the entire outfit together. She tends to keep her hair tied up, but she will take it down to use the tie for practical uses if need be and decently often she will wear only her hakama alone, bindings keeping her chest tied up and appropriate (mostly when relaxing in safety or needing to dive into water for fishing etc). She does not wear additional armor on two accounts: it's easier to blend in and keep attention off of herself if she is not adorned in armor and she has enough confidence in her abilities and healing that she does not see a need for most smaller skirmishes to need it covering her.

There may be times she is seen wearing a more traditional women's kimono, albeit a fancier one that is light blue with dark blue gradient patterning. There are a handful of other outfits and armor she may be wearing depending on the event going on in the story, but such outfits will be detailed as need be or shown via art of Koneko.

Likes

Eating
Fish of any sort
Kiyomi/Friends
Being Playful
Fighting strong opponents
Bathing in hot springs/warm water

Dislikes

Black Tiger Clan
Most other yokai (demons)
Perverts (Kaito mainly)
Seeing her friends in danger
Her enemies (Naraku)

Habits

Usually speaks her mind
Keeps her eye on Inuyasha (Glorified babysitting)
Keeps on alert that might cross her path
Dresses in masculine clothing/binds chest
Relaxes any chance she can - never passes an opportunity on a hot spring especially

Allies

Kaito

Kiyomi

Yuzuki (deceased)

Various others depending on how story goes

Enemies

Black Tiger Clan (Her own/Father's clan)

Various others depending on how story goes

Family

Nekomaru (father, deceased)

Inari (mother, deceased)

Kenichi (half brother)

Occupation

Ronin

Potentially Clan Leader (Future, IF she takes back control of her father's clan)

Powers

Fire breathing/manipulation
Fireproof
Wingless flight/hovering
Mild Illusion Magic (can hide yokai features look almost human/appear as opposite gender, generally short duration)
Aura Manipulation
Exceptional Swimming Ability (aura can help her swim)
Water Walking/Breathing/Manipultaion (aura allows her to stand on water and allows water to seem no different than air)

Abilities

Good Swordsmanship (Japanese style sword fighting)
Sharp Claws (extendable/retractable)

Full Daiyokai form

Flexible/Acrobatic
Fast Footed
Strong/Powerful Tail
Mild resistance to spiritual powers (will still hurt her)

Weapons

Standard Katana

Special Katana gifted from Kiyomi's Family

Raisou (magic sword/katana - only obtained if she defeats her father's clan)
Potentially others out in the open if some are laying around, she knows how to use most weapons

Pictures

Trivia

-Even though I may refer to Koneko as a Hanyou, she has no human in her. I may say this in reference to another character's misconception of her or as her not contesting it even if it is incorrect.
-In her standard appearance has a cat nose on a human face as well as outward markings, ears and a tail, however she can disguise this to look like a normal human or yokai for a short time if she chooses.
-In one of the major RP worlds she has been in, Kiyomi and her replace Kagome entirely. Kiyomi has the miko powers and Koneko the ability to leash in Inuyasha via his nenju.
-Koneko actually prefers to disguise as male human. This is for two reasons: her ronin disguise works better in this light and also works better for flirting with and picking up women as she is fond of doing. She learned to make illusion disguises from her half brother Kenichi, however, not being a kitsune herself, she is far from perfect at it.
-While it doesn't reflect in English well, Koneko actually uses masculine words out of habit to refer to herself as she speaks natively Japanese. So, when she says "I" or "Me/Myself," she will actually use "Boku" (僕) or "Ore" (俺) far more commonly than "Watashi" (私). Aside from this and acting more like a man, she does identify completely as female, but does not like to be treated as women of her time period are and will consider it an insult.

History to Present

Backstory time on her parents for flavor to be added later, currently WIP<3 Below is at least a foot not version of important highlights:

Koneko was born into her father's clan, under the waning crescent moon, though her very existence was met with great distaste to most of the Black Tiger Clan due to being a half dragon rather than a full daiyokai tiger. Her father and mother, Nekomaru and Inari, however loved her incredibly deeply and sought to give her the best life she could, sometimes even spoiling her in the process. Yet the life of luxury would not last as note of unrest came to her father's attention, whispers of a coup to overthrow his lineage and position reached his ears and so he quietly began to take action, desiring to keep his chosen wife and beloved daughter safe from hands that wished to harm them. Having ties to Inu no Taishou from previous encounters against him and later taking ally-ship with him against more pressing foes, he turned to him with his desire for his daughter's safety, and over a short time began too discuss a full truce between their clans via an arranged marriage between their children. Yet the traitors were moving far too quickly for him to get arrangements fully set, Nekomaru informing the dog general of the treason among his ranks and accepting that he himself would bear the brunt of their ire, leaving a final plea that he help keep his wife and child find safe passage to a kitsune clan he held close ties. As the traitors set their plan into motion, Nekomaru encouraged his ally to go along with it and strike him down as a distraction to allow his family to escape, unintentionally leading a young Koneko to bear some witness to the event, burning in her mind a painful memory of witnessing the Windscar rip into her father from a distance away. After being escorted away from the home she knew all her life, Koneko and her mother arrived safely at the allied clan and entered their protection and hospitality, though she was left mourning her father for quite some time.

As they resided there, it became apparent part of the ally-ship between Nekomaru and this clan of kitsune was due to a son he sired among them: Kenichi. As Koneko's older half brother, the half-fox became greatly attached to how adorable little sister was and hung around her often to cheer her up or keep her soothed, even taking to giving himself the appearance of having fox ears to make her feel like she fit in better. He taught her some of his trouble-making ways and she began to warm up to this new place despite missing her father terribly. Yet even this calm period would unfortunately not last for long as the traitors who caused the coup sought to either capture Koneko to use her for her father's prowess or kill her for what she was: whichever came first. They could not reach her inside the kitsune clan's walls, so they sought opportunities that they may leave that protection. Sadly, one such occasion arose when Koneko was brought outside the walls for some light training for fighting and the traitors took the opportunity to strike. Her mother defended her fiercely, yet the small group was overwhelmed and Inari soon perished protecting her beloved daughter, bestowing her wisdom pearl to her before her own death, knowing it would help keep balance in Koneko's powers, and encouraged her daughter to flee for her life and survive. Flee she did, running nearly non-stop and only resting in rivers on instinct, places she could hide easily, and kept running until she made it to the western coast of Japan. Fearing she would be pursued even that far, she soon mustered any courage and desperation left in her and dove into the coastal waters traversing the ocean to the continent (China) where she finally felt she would be safe, yet soon found a new set of struggles awaiting her.

Alone and bitter to her clan and finding herself strongly outcast by humans, yokai and other creatures alike in this unfamiliar place, Koneko wandered, seeking a place to belong once again, though having no luck with this endeavor. That was until she met a female yokai (slight changes in progress), and, being young and impressionable, fell in love with her and listened to her twisted urging that to find her place she needed to flaunt her abilities: respect was gained through fear  with shows of power an destruction. This proved to be a great downfall for Koneko, leading her down a treacherous path she had little idea would end with her over-estimating herself and nearly dying in shame as after enough time causing terror, an army, some demon slayers and some prestigious holy men were sent to end her terror. After a vicious battle with these humans, she fell and was left for dead by the yokai that had lead her here, leaving her horribly injured and dying on the battlefield. It was there that she soon met Yuzuki and Kaito, a white witch and kitsune from the very village she had once been kept safe in, unbeknownst to two of them sent to help end her terror. Kaito recognized Koneko and took pity upon her, convincing Yuzuki to help nurse her back to health, before guiding them back to their homeland, all the while Kaito taking interest in the hybrid while Koneko herself took interest in Yuzuki. Falling in love once more, but this time for the better, she instead learned to hone and control her power and skills and vowed to protect those who needed it. The day Yuzuki suddenly disappeared, Koneko was left confused and hurt unable to fathom why she had once again been left by herself and mournful she had no idea what happened to her greatest love. Taking to wandering the countryside and leaving Kaito behind, she began to hunt for signs and clues of what happened to Yuzuki, seeking either answers for why she was left, or to know at least what had happened that caused them to be unable to stay united, she hid who and what she was by passing off as a wandering ronin and continued helping those who needed it as the change in her heart desired to continue on for the better.

Years went by, a few decades, but her loneliness and heartache only seemed to grow, some nights spent staving it off by finding temporary women to keep her company here and there as she passed through village after village and as her search progressed fruitless. That would change when she came across an odd miko that spoke openly of a different time and unusual things, but caught her attention as someone who needed to be protected - Kiyomi. (open ended from here at the moment)

[Taishou89]

Approved!