Bamboo-hatted Kim

Name: Bamboo-Hatted Kim (or just Kim, but referred to as Mentor)

Gender: Male

Occupation: Bamboo-hatted Kim is a Mentor of the Blade Lineage, a cut-throat Syndicate once allied with S Corp. The Blade Lineage is a Syndicate in the Backstreets of the City that has a noted lack of structure, with its members acting much more independently than those in other Syndicates. It accepts any who have nowhere else to go and have the murderous intent necessary to survive in such a group. The members take pride in the scars they receive in battles, seeing a lack of scars as proof of cowardice in battle. The Blade Lineage hail from District 19, the territory of S Corp. According to Aeng-du, the faction left in search of a better home due to the instability and corruption in the district, spreading out throughout the City. This resulted in much conflict, since most other areas in the City were already controlled by other Syndicates and factions. They are in conflict with the Kurokumo Clan for an unspecified reason, likely a territorial conflict over the former territory of Nest L following the collapse of Lobotomy Corporation. The Kurokumo Clan eventually placed a bounty on the entire group due to them being on the Thumb's "shitlist," according to Kurokumo Captain Jun. During this time, the mentor of Aeng-du's group, Bamboo-hatted Kim, received an invitation to the Library.

Personality: Bamboo-hatted Kim speaks rarely, though when he does, he does so in a rather solemn, verbose tone. Even when facing certain death or under influence of the Monolith, he continues to speak calmly, showing no sign of hesitation when in any of his battles. He speaks rather cryptically and often sees those without scars or sign of former injury in battle as a sign of cowardice, and does not permit them to join or train them in the Blade Lineage. When Distorted, he is not himself. He is completely quiet and speaks very rarely, and is quite violent to everyone, not hesitant to attack and cut down even fellow Blade Lineage members. As a Distortion, his lack of emotion is more apparent. He purely shows his battle instinct as his only course of action is to strike and battle anything that comes within his sword's range.

Appearance: Bamboo-hatted Kim is a tall man whose actual features remain hidden behind his clothing, and by his namesake, his signature bamboo hat. He wears the standardized Blade Lineage robes, which remain untied. Underneath the robes he wears a gray buttoned dress suit, white dress shirt, and a tucked red tie. He wears black gloves while carrying a Blade Lineage jikdo which is usually unsheathed, holding it in his right hand. He also wears gray dress pants and black dress shoes. His signature bamboo hat is damaged near the left side, revealing a blazing azure eye. Under the influence of the Monolith as a Distortion, his form noticeably changes. His robes and dress attire grow more elongated, bloodied and ragged. His bamboo hat is now more damaged and there is a more notable intensity coming from his blazing blue eye. There is a more notable dark aura surrounding him as a Distortion, with his sheathe to his jikido no longer present, as his sword is more elongated, bloodied and now shows cuts along the blade. He is also wearing a metal mask beneath his hat, with a resemblance to the face of a Dokkaebi (Korean goblin). His distorted form has several other qualities that allude to Dokkaebi, including the blue flame and his hat.

Story/Past: Like his followers in the Blade Lineage, Bamboo-hatted Kim originally came from S Corp.'s Nest. He was the devoted bodyguard of an official who was attempting to root out corruption in the Wing. Bamboo-hatted Kim shared his councilor's ideals, believing it honorable to be a "protector of the virtuous" who killed those seeking to do them harm. However, in the end, Kim was unable to save his councilor from assassins sent by the corrupt officials, though he himself survived. Kim possibly took revenge on the corrupt officials, or left them alive with a warning that he would return for them one day. Regardless, he was forced to take his Blade Lineage followers (similarly feathers of S Corp.) and flee the district in order to escape the Ch'unokkun, who were sent by S Corp. to stop this from happening. With his "spirit broken," and seeing that they had become little more than wandering vagabonds, Bamboo-hatted Kim tried to provide for his followers by finding a territory to settle down in, but all the places they went to were already occupied by other Syndicates]. Eventually, Kim led his group to the Backstreets of T Corp, where they ended up in conflict with the Kurokumo Clan. In the midst of the fighting, he received an invitation from the Library. Believing it to be a better option for his followers, he accepted the Invitation and went in. One by one, he and his followers fell in battle and turned into books. Like other victims of the Library, Bamboo-hatted Kim returned from his book form back to the Backstreets of District 20 alongside Aeng-du and his other Blade Lineage followers, seemingly not long before the events of Intervallo III. Coincidentally, Bamboo-hatted Kim returned near the top floors of the Yong-jin Building, where a large number of Kurokumo Clan members were standing guard waiting to transport a Monolith as per orders of the Thumb. Surprised by their sudden appearance, the Kurokumo Clan engaged the Blade Lineage in fierce battle. Despite Bamboo-hatted Kim's prowess, the Blade Lineage members were overwhelmed by numbers and cut down one by one until only Kim and two others remained. Seeing his allies defeated and being in a vulnerable, traumatic position that "shook him to the core" (reminding him of his past failure in S Corp.), Bamboo-hatted Kim distorted. It is revealed by Jun that Kim proceeded to slay every living person in the room indiscriminately, excluding Jun himself, who escaped Kim's wrath and stood guard in front of the door to the room where the Monolith and Kim lay dormant in order to protect the rest of his men.

External factions: The Kurokumo Clan is a Syndicate working in the Backstreets of the City. The Kurokumo Clan is one of the subsidiaries of The Thumb. The Kurokumo Clan is notable for its focus on swordplay, and is recognizable by their usage of odachi and their extensive augmentation tattoos, which depict the black clouds the Clan is named after and grant its users a level of full-body protection, particularly against stab injuries. Their main form of revenue is extortion, such as requiring tolls for passage between territories, or payments from Nest citizens in exchange for "protection". In recent times, the Clan has also been interested in the dealing of artifacts such as Monoliths.

Location: The City is divided into twenty-six Districts, quite diverse in culture and aesthetics, each of which is governed by a Wing, a corporation that has ascended to claim complete control of said area. All Wings respond to the Head, the supreme governing power of the City. The arrangement of the Districts seems to be static, as there has been no mentioned case of a District expanding into a fallen Wing's territory. Each District is split into a Nest, a territory directly governed and protected by its Wing, and the Backstreets, expansive spaces of wilderness or slums, largely neglected by the Wings, where the Syndicates of the City run free. Districts tend to have similarities to their neighbors, and are typically grouped into four sections: the northern, eastern, southern, and western quarters. These quarters may be distinguished by commonalities including culture and temperature, such as the same Fixer Associations differing in garb and fighting style across different quarters, or the northern quarter having colder weather. District 26, while confirmed to exist in current times, is not visible from the map. District 20 is known to have no color due to its Singularity, being just monochrome.

Secondary Location: The Library: It replaced the former L Corp.'s Headquarters' Facility, taking the form of a branching tower shrouded in thick fog, and slowly becoming more visible and influential across the City over the course of events. People are sent Invitations to enter, and if they survive, they get to take any book from the large tower’s towering bookshelves. If they die, they turn into a book themselves.