Kanae Otori

Kanae Otori is a character from the visual novel Fullmetal Daemon: Muramasa.

To give some background about the setting, Kanae Otori lives in a dystopian Japan (known here as Yamato), where the nation is ruled by the tyrannical Rokuhara Shogunate, lead by 4 generals (named Yusa Dosshin, Chachamaru Ashikage, Shishuku Ohtori, and Raicho Imagawa) and a shogun who don't care much for their people, and where acts of tyranny by Rokuhara are common. At the same time however, a group known as GHQ (an extension of the Britannia Empire, where the two big empires in the world currently are the Britannian Empire and the Russian Empire) is also vying for power to control Yamato through indirectly influencing the civilian population to believe that GHQ's control over Yamato would be better than Rokuhara's, such that the people would view it justified when GHQ declares war on Rokuhara. Kanae Otori works for GHQ, though she’s actually loyal to the Yamatoan people. She works under Clive Canon under the Data Management Bureau, and carries out most of his missions.

Also, battles take place in machines called "tsurugi" which are basically robot mecha that are piloted from the inside cockpit by people calledv "musha". They are much smaller than your average mecha though and a bit more humanoid, being like 3 times the size of an average person. Basically like a really huge suit of armor. Sentient tsurugis refer to their pilots as "Mido".

Battles between musha (those wielding tsurugi) are typically either ground based or air based. Ground-based duels are similar to regular samurai duels, but tsurugi battles primarily take to the air. First both tsurugis aim for an altitude advantage over the other. Then, the one above dives to strike the one below, so the one below must fly up to meet them. The one at a higher altitude has the advantage as their strike is aided by gravity while the other works against gravity. After the clash, the tsurugi initially higher continues diving down to gain speed, to increase their speed again to rise to the greater altitude next clash. The tsurugi initially lower can't keep rising as they won't have the speed to keep 'em in the air, so they then dive to increase their speed so, but they're still disadvantaged as they started their dive with less speed than the other tsurugi.

As for her powers, in base Kanae just uses a standard GHQ rifle. However, she’s an expert marksman. She’s capable of hitting the same exact spot every time she fires a gun from far away. She can see details from EXTREMELY far away, way beyond superhuman. She can also fire bullets in rapid succession, and in fact under her skirt she keeps tons of weapons. She also has EXTREMELY high reaction speed.

As for her tsurugi activation of William Burrough’s tsurugi, she just has to play her cello. The tsurugi looks like a knight, and due to its light weight it is able to quickly gain altitude. It has a longsword in one hand, and in the other hand, a crossbow. Though, the crossbow is also directly attached to a arm-shield, so Kanae is able to both use a sword + shield combo and wield her crossbow if need be.

Normally, a crossbow’s shot can be evaded, but not Kanae’s. For she has a power allowed thanks to her far-seeing eyes: The Paradox of the Tell and the Apple.

Lots of lore behind it, but basically when an arrow is fired, it travels in a straight line towards its target, however Kanae can reset the arrow's flight path to any of the infinite points in the arrow's path and change its direction. The arrow shifts to its new course instantly, in defiance to the laws of physics, and it can do it again, as many times as necessary to hit its target. Basically, any arrow she fires from her tsurugi is basically unevadeable no matter your speed, because Kanae can just change the path of the arrow to always move towards you in the most optimal way. The only solution is to either: not let her fire off a shot, or distort her vision somehow.

One final thing, but as a tsurugi uses their special move (so in Kanae's case her eyes and her special crossbow move), they'll end up using their body's calories as fuel. If they overuse their power, they'll experience "grayout", where their heat reserves are dangerously low. Cold will overtake their body as their vision grows gray, and they'll slowly lose motor control and die if they continue pushing themselves. Kanae's crossbow bolt uses A LOT of energy, and may cause her own eyes to bleed.

For her backstory, her father (Otori Tokitsugu) was the head of the Otori clan. She also grew up with and fell in love with an orphan who she was in an arranged marriage with, that being Shishiku Otori (formerly Shishiku Arata). However, Kanae as a child was peculiar. One day, her father saw her tear the headd of a praying mantis? Her reason? Because it had killed a butterfly. Another day, she killed a raven which had pillaged a sparrow’s nest. Another day, Kanae had killed a dog, because that dog had killed a kitten.

When her father asked why, Kanae said it was simply wrong to take a life. She said she’d killed those animals because "they" (the animals killed) had “demanded” it. But even when Kanae was told all people, even humans, kill to survive, Kanae said then that maybe humans deserve punishment too.

If nature decreed that creatures kill to live, then nature itself was wrong. The law of Vengeance. No excuse, not even necessity, could ever justify murder. Not to Kanae. And even when made the point that the creatures Kanae killed may have friends who’d come to kill Kanae, she just smiled and said if that’s the case, then justice would be done.

But for Kanae, she wanted to avenge the slain, not because it was right, because it gave her pleasure. Killing people made her happy, or so she thinks.

Kanae also had instilled in her a sense of right and wrong, that it’s wrong to kill people. That the strong should stand up for the weak. That the nation should come first. But this responsibility also gave her the perfect excuse to kill: kill those who have killed. Avenge those slain.

Kanae would be exiled to study in Habsburg (in Europe) as exile when she ended up massacring multiple Otori household members who’d attacked and killed people from a village. On the day of her exile, her father had said to her “perhaps it isn’t hate that drives you. Perhaps you simply love too much.” Kanae always though her father just had misunderstood her, and that she was a monster. But, maybe it's possible he was right all along. She doesn't truly know herself.

After her exile, it would turn out that her father would kill his brother, because he had to in order to preserve Yamato’s peace. Shishiku was raised by Kanae’s uncle, so this would lead him into usurping and killing Kanae’s father Tokitsugu. For this, Kanae had a personal reason to carry out vengeance, and she would wait until the day she could. She wanted to see by carrying out a personal vengeance, if it would give her satisfaction. It did not.

Additionally during exile, there was only one person who stayed with her: Sayo Nagakura. She is quite an old lady, and she’s been around since Kanae was a child. Nagakura plays the straight-man to Kanae, and Nagakura is probably one of the few people who actually understands Kanae yet has still stuck around with her.

Additionally there was one other brother Kanae had- Nitta Yuhi, who was a son of her father from another mother. He was living a life outside of the Otori family (he didn’t even know he was born into that family), but one day he was killed by Kageaki. This gave Kanae a personal vengeance motive against Kageaki, once she would later struggle with to see through.

Kanae of course had only preyed on killers. Although, she never once believed what she did was good. After all, her victims had their reasons, and their reasons were no less valid than her own. That’s why she’d at least always give them a chance to fight, rather than assassinating them. Additionally, she would not kill someone out of personal vengeance if say it would cause Yamato’s downfall. That’s why she held off so long on killing Shishiku.

Kanae kills in the name of vengeance no matter the reason the other person had. It doesn’t even matter how they react to news to their death, whether that be fear, deluding themselves into accepting it, anger, denial, or any other emotion. She always killed them. That's when she runs into someone different though, Minato Kageaki. Unlike the others, he actually thanked Kanae when Kanae said she’d kill him. He believed his life had no value, even though Kageaki was basically forced by fate to do the horrible things he did (as Kageaki was forced to carry the Law of Balance, which is that every time he kills someone he deems evil, he must kill someone he deems good). Kanae’s frustrated by Kageaki forcing himself into misery, as why would he force himself to suffer, when all he has to do is accept it isn’t his fault? But even so, Kageaki has the gall to think he deserves death and a life of suffering.

As for her base personality, she is very perceptive, and has a very roundabout way of speaking. You’ll say something and she’ll respond with something that sounds completely off-topic. She makes use of metaphors in her way of speaking, where her words interpreted literally mean one thing, but she was trying to convey something else with those words. Her way of speaking is friendly but also well-spoken, and she typically speaks like an old teasing and aloof onee-san (don’t call her old though). She talks a lot in a teasing way, even when she’s about to straight up murder someone.

As mentioned, she does have a strong (if very twisted) sense of justice, so she won’t stand by while say a Rokuharan officer is working some people to death, even if she’s under orders to not attack Rokuharan officers.

Also one final thing, but she has a habit of saying something that’s obviously sarcastic, but doing it in a mildly aloof and genuine tone of voice so that it sounds as if she actually means what she says.

She also will speak in a serious way in tense situations, but only to her allies.