Koharu Watanabe [APPROVED, Iramasha; 5-4] [Hazard Rating F]

Fri Apr 02, 2021 4:39 am

KOHARU

BASIC INFO

NAME: Watanabe Koharu
EPITHET: Nury Ilva-Iramasha
AGE: 20
BIRTHDATE: October 12th
SEX: Female
RACE: Angel Iramasha
SEXUALITY: Demisexual

Appearance

HEIGHT: 5'5 / 165cm
WEIGHT: 113 lbs / 51 kg
EYE COLOUR: Red
HAIR COLOUR: Black
SKIN COLOUR: Pale
FACE CLAIM: Hanekawa Hasumi from Blue Archive

Personality

Misanthropic: Koharu hates people. They're unprincipled, hypocritical, selfish, and terrible to one another. Even when you think someone might be one of the exceptions to the swathes, somewhere down the line you find their true colours betray their morals. Plenty of them want to think themselves good, or think of themselves as at least trying, but when faced with the opportunity they falter to willful ignorance and biases. They act partial, they act fake, they ask for empathy and understanding but are wary to give any. People are a disappointing folk, and having any expectations of or opening up to and trusting them only has value if you're a masochist who enjoys hurting yourself.

Forgiving: Nevertheless, you have to give them a chance. It's only fair. Even if she doesn't to, even if she expects them to fail in being an exception to the many, Koharu feels she wouldn't be any different from the people she hated if she acted as if they already failed. And even then, if she sees them fail, if they express the desire to get back up and try again, she'd give them another chance. As many as it took. There hasn't really been anyone to prove this sort of system fruitful, but maybe one day. It's only right that she does so, and this sort of principled way of living is of great importance to her.

Uncompromising: If there was one thing she felt immovable on, it was in living according to her values and acting righteously according to them. There are plenty of underlying reasons she could come up with as to why she so stubbornly commits to them, to the point of enduring plenty of heartache and pain; most of the time living as she does goes unrewarded, and even mentally detrimental and draining. But the centre of this commitment rely just lies in the fact that it is the good and right thing to do. When there are times where she wants to falter, where Koharu wants to give up on holding herself to a sort of standard that nobody around would make complaint about because she's sure no-one else really cares, or at least cares as much about this as she does, Koharu reminds herself of the core reasoning why she does anything at all: because she should. It's hard to explain anymore than that.

Irritable: That doesn't stop her from feeling some type of way about people, though. Even being around other people can quickly sour her mood. Koharu can't help her inclination of noticing some flaws in people, flaws that really peeve her, and she can't help letting them become the defining characteristics when she looks at them. Not that her perception on the person or individual would ever change how she actually treated them, just on a matter of principle. It doesn't help that she frequently experiences headaches, often times exacerbated by people, which cuts down on her patience and tolerance for people. It makes her fairly blunt and to the point, even inflammatory or outright rude, though she does what she can to hold her tongue, when she can.

History

Watanabe Koharu was born just as the last leaves were turning to their copper hues. Her family lived in the countryside, and her formative years were peaceful and beautiful. The changes to the world, the spiritual and mystical beings shifting nature, didn't seem to reach her home. She was fortunate enough to see the seasons come and go in normal step. As a child, she loved every moment of it. There were times of frustration and tears, but as a whole she grew up happy and healthy.

As she grew older, Koharu became curious and exploratory of the world around her. Ideas, places, people, they all interested her. The more she learned, the less she liked what was around her. As many children, the protective barrier of ignorance that kept life blissful slowly started to shed, and the more she pushed on the bubble, the more exposed she was to what a grim reality was around her. She learned of wars and depravity, and though the thought of it all saddened her, it all seemed so distant. That last film of her bubble had yet to pop.

Her first close experience to the harsher sides of life was in middle school. Her best friend had a boyfriend, and like many of their peers, they became aware of the opposite sex. Koharu personally couldn't relate, perhaps she was a late bloomer, but she could still understand the dynamic. Her best friend was a vocal girl, and expressed her feelings to Koharu well.

One day, her best friend was absent from class. Curious, she messaged her, and from the response Koharu quickly ran over to her friend's house. There, her friend shared a positive pregnancy test. Devastated, scared, and confused as to what to do, Koharu stayed to assure her best friend. After a time, Koharu convinced her friend to tell her parents. Difficult as it was, she assured her that it was the most responsible decision. They would know what to do. Besides, they were her parents, the people she could best rely on. Koharu never saw her best friend after that day.

Her parents were furious and unaccepting of the circumstances. They demanded to know the boy responsible, they wanted her to get an abortion, and lashed out at her. In turn, the girl fled her house. When Koharu found out, she began looking for her, confident that the girl's parents would do the same. They did not. Koharu got her own parents to help look for the girl, but after three days, they stopped the search, leaving a more extensive search to the authorities instead. Koharu was completely confounded. She couldn't understand why her best friend's parents were so unempathetic, why what she assumed was a universal unconditional love that all parents had for their children absent from them.

Filled with anger, she approached the boyfriend, quite openly, and admonished him. She expected the people around her to share her vitriol with the details laid to bare. That he had some responsibility over this. Instead, Koharu only heard condemning whispers amongst the classmates towards her best friend. Shocked from her outburst, the boy became defensive, said he had nothing to do with anything; that he never touched her best friend, and if she got pregnant then it must've been someone else. The whispers kept going, the contents getting worse and worse. Koharu was expelled from school that day for violence against a fellow classmate.

The Watanabe family moved to a large city due to her father's job. Two years passed, and Koharu entered highschool. She spent the gap years being home-tutored and receiving online education, which was more than prevalent and accessible in this century. With the move, she went back to attending a physical school. At first reclusive and quiet, the new environment paired with outgoing kids helped Koharu get out of her shell. She became fairly sociable and entered a large friend group, but stayed adamant about avoiding romantic relationships. With a friend group as big as it was, there were even relationships forming between her friends, and though it made her uncomfortable, Koharu convinced herself that her past experiences should not be considered a templated standard for the future. Fortunately, no similar incidents occurred.

Her school life was pleasant, but her home life became gradually tense. Koharu was well accomplished in school. Her grades were excellent, she joined the kendo club and did well, and she even took part in the student council. Her elder brother was not nearly at studious. It earned him their parents' frustrations and lectures, often comparing them to her. She noticed in particularly small incidents, fairly mundane events, where he did something wrong like forget to wash the dishes, they'd be harsh with him. Yet, when she forgot about the dishes, they fairly calmly told her not to forget, and to do it before she went to bed. The partiality wasn't anything serious, but she didn't consider it okay. More pressingly, she was worried about whether their favouritism would strain the relationship between her and her brother. Koharu's worries seemed unfounded, and he still acted as her lovely, caring, and even doting brother. She was thankful for it, and they'd still have some nights where they'd vent to one another, even complaining about their parents in mutual teenage frustration.

Things quickly soured after she heard him talking to his friend about her. It was after her angrily slammed the door to his room following an argument with their parents, wherein they once again compared the two of them. Her brother vented out to his friend, complaining about not just their parents, but Koharu herself. It made her feel foolish and disillusioned, but equally frustrated. She couldn't figure out why she was at fault. Her parents were the ones comparing them, but she made sure to avoid any such thing when talking to him, or frankly anyone. After that night, whether she was aware of it or not, she began distancing herself from her brother. She feared coming to any point of confrontation or argument with him, and refrained from saying or doing anything at home that might give him reason to lash out, or speak or think any more poorly of her. Their time together became less and less frequent, until he graduated school and went on to join the Vanguard.

In the following years, the global sociopolitical climate only grew more and more strained. Though her immediate life was not impacted, and no particularly large scaled wars occurred for a good while, everyone knew the tension between organisations only grew. Talks of another World War began to spread; the last time a war of that scale occurred was nearly seventy years ago. Though many people on Earth and amongst the realms would remember it personally, and therefore knew to be extremely fearful of it, Koharu personally had no experience with it. She only heard the fearmongering around her, the rumours, the terror that it could bring. And, though she grew very distant with him, Koharu only feared for his safety. Following the formation of the Lux Orior, everyone's greatest fears were realised.

Arguably the most protected place on Earth, Karakura Central, was subject to the devastation of the war as well. The leader of Shadow Fall herself, Mana Asthavon, appeared in the city alongside innumerable demons. Many districts were quickly thrown to chaos, and Koharu's was no exception. Emergency orders were put out for residents to leave their homes and escape to safety zones, bunkers, or for residents out of the city at the time to remain outside of the city.
The Lux Orior and even heroic individuals came to defend the city, and her district was protected by a rogue Iramasha. During the fight, a building was pulverised, and the debris flung out to entrap a number of people who were fleeing the scene to one of the safe zones. At the time, Koharu was amongst a group of people fleeing, who were luckily a few feet ahead and thus narrowly avoided the debris. The debris itself and local devastation formed a sort of barrier dividing a street. On one side being the Iramasha fending off Shadow Fall's forces. Under the debris, the group of people trapped, and beyond it the group Koharu was in, fleeing towards one of the safety areas. As far as she could tell, they were a good distance away and in the clear, such that they had the time to go back to help the people under the debris. If even half of the people in her group turned around to just help one person out, they could all get away safely. Though Koharu herself was powerless, surely a number of people in her group had some level of abilities that could expedite the process. Yet, no one turned around. Amongst the people in her group, she was the only one who stopped running. It filled her with despair. Not towards the situation they faced, but a despair in her views of humanity and people.

In small little incidents, her view of people was already deteriorating. She saw the small little flaws in people, usually mundane, and chalked it up to the unavoidable insufficiency of all people. As they said, nobody was perfect. It was forgivable, if only because surely they would be, or try to be, cognisant of these moments of imperfection. And when a person was faced with it, faced with the opportunity to do better, to be fair, to at the very least be compassionate, to help thy fellow man, just as anyone would want to reach out to them, anyone would reach out themselves. But it never seemed to be the case. She hated it. Though she denied it, and rationalised in her head, Koharu just hated people in general. Maybe there were exceptions, but she couldn't find it in herself to be hopeful and trusting of someone to show themselves as the exception. There was no telling when, later down the line, they'd falter anyways.

In fact, the people under the debris were probably no different. They were flawed humans. Though it was a radical assumption, in theory any number of them were terrible people. Maybe they deserved to be buried. Maybe even the boyfriend of her middle school best friend was buried underneath. Surely he deserved it. He was remorseless.

But maybe it was her brother underneath. Maybe it was her high school friends. Honestly, they were flawed, too. If she thought about it, there were things to hate about them as well.
It didn't matter who was underneath the debris. It didn't matter whether they deserved to be trapped and die here and now. It didn't matter what wrongs they did, none of that mattered. It wasn't for Koharu to decide whether they deserved to be there. It only mattered what the right thing was, and that was to turn around and help them.

One at a time, Koharu dug out the people trapped underneath. Some of them were thankful, some called her a good person. Some were also not so thankful, some urged her to hurry up under duress. Many, once out, continued to run towards the safe zone. Maybe they simply assumed she had some power or ability that enabled her to excavate them safely, so she didn't have to worry about rushing to the safe zone. Maybe they just didn't care, and were only concerned with securing themselves safely. Maybe they just weren't thinking about it.

Koharu took out as many people as she could find. Some were already dead, and though some of the things she saw were gruesome, she stomached the nausea and continued. By the time she finished, the fight on the other side concluded. The Iramasha was flung over to Koharu's side, crashing into a building. Following after him was an imposing demon, albeit injured. They exchanged a few choice words, and as the demon descended to go in for the kill, the Iramasha's sword shot out a bolt of flames and felled the demon. Its body fell to the pile of debris dividing the street, shifting the pile around to expose some more bodies underneath.

Koharu first went to the Iramasha, still evidently alive. She cautiously approached them, just in case they were still on edge and maybe instinctively attacked her. They were still aware and conscious of the surroundings, and even greeted her with a nonchalant smile. It was kind of stupid, but reassuring. She asked if they were alright and could stand, and they cracked a joke that basically let her know that he was not at all alright. Despite his own likely fatal injuries, the Iramasha reached out to grab her hand, and a light filled her silhouette, healing all the scratches and bruises she accumulated while helping the trapped people out. He seemed to be one of those exceptions.

He soon after demonstrated otherwise when cries from beneath the shifted debris came out. It sounded like a child. Koharu quickly moved to get them out, but the Iramasha protested. He said another wave of demons were coming, he could sense them nearly there. If she went to help the child out, then both of them would die. It was in her better interest to flee, so at least one person could survive. Koharu was disgusted. She scoffed and ran towards the child. There was an adult next to the child, likely a relative of theirs, but it was clear that they were dead just from looking at them. Koharu reached in and pulled the child out, covering their eyes so they couldn't see the body next to them now that the light from the outside made it visible.

Unfortunately, the Iramasha was right. Another wave of demons came, and a blast of magic shot out at her. Koharu covered the child with her body to protect them, but her efforts were futile. The magic blew a hole right through her, killing the child she was holding. Koharu fell to the ground and her visioned faded. The most she could see was something moving towards her. The Iramasha from earlier crawled to her location laughing. He gave her a brief sort of 'I told you so', but he admired her guts anyways. He said that he was already on the way out, but if she was up to the task, he didn't mind throwing her a bone. Koharu assumed it was the ramblings of a dying man. She could only muster enough energy to shallowly nod her head.

Light once more filled her silhouette. The Iramasha called himself Nury, of the Ilva House, and that he was passing his aether class and name onto her. He intended the name part as a joke, but Koharu was unable to process much humour through her exhaustion. She only continued to nod her head. With a few more words and a few more shining lights, the ritual was completed.

The day passed, and Koharu woke up in the Karakura Hospital. The city persevered, and Shadow Fall pulled out. In a few more days, the situation in the city improved enough that the Yayjuu Network could once more be used for the average residents. She quickly tried to link up with all her friends, her parents, and even her brother. She could only find some of her friends. Neither her parents nor brother were on the network. Another week passed, and it seemed definitive that she wouldn't be able to reach out to them any longer.

Her time in the hospital was filled with people just like her. She did her best to keep things to herself. Lashing out here wouldn't help anybody, though when she saw people around her openly despairing, she felt for them. It filled her with pain, accentuated by this sense of anxiety and discomfort more existential to her. Born as an only barely spiritually aware human, Koharu was totally unprepared and unadjusted to the innate powers of an Iramasha and their innate abilities to sense parts of nature. The devastation in Karakura and the conflicting energy made the air around her feel like putrid mud and waste. It gave her an everpresent headache and made her more irritable. She became more judgemental of the people around her as well. Though she related to the hopelessness of other patients, some of them grew violent. Some swore with every fiber of their being they'd get revenge. As Koharu saw it, they let the darkness in their heart get to them. It reinforced her feelings of hating how people were.

The number of people in the hospital were already well beyond its operating capacity, but as the days of the war went by, the numbers of people needing attention grew exponentially. Given Karakura Hospital was on the cutting edge of medical science and magic institutions on Earth, many people from overseas and other cities were sent over. Though the headaches and general discomfort persisted, it was no longer always active. Even if it was, since she felt her physical health was fine, Koharu figured it wasn't necessary for her to take a bed in the hospital. It was better served for someone else. As she was already eighteen by now, and she had elder family members to act as her guardian, Koharu checked herself out; though, when she did, they checked her out as Nury Ilva-Iramasha.

The Yuudeshi Network recognised her energy signature as his. Koharu remembered his dying words being that she would inherit his aether class, which she vaguely understood through her studies, and that she would inherit his name as well. Though she wasn't fond of him, and especially how nonchalant he was in such a scenario, he still did save her life, and many others. His attitude was irritating, but he seemed like a good person in the end. One of the exceptions. Koharu wouldn't mind using his name as her own when the situation felt appropriate.

Powers

Iramasha Abilities: Two years passed since she became an Iramasha. Since then, she's carried on acting in what she thought was right and good, similar to what she imagined Nury would do given their brief interaction. Though she had no teacher to learn from, Koharu has had enough time to acquaint herself with some of her potential powers. She has an inclination to use fire-based spells, mostly to mimick what she saw the original Koharu do. Otherwise, she's capable of some body-enhancing aether arts, and a few intuitively used spells, but nothing formal or complex. She can exert a rudimentary level of control over nearby aether as well. That said, Koharu doesn't actually know what the aether class she inherited is. She has yet to properly connect to it, though she does have a clear inclination towards sources of heat and natural instances of fire.

SKILL SHEETS

Iramasha Skill Sheet