Name: Tsubaki Yayoi
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Race: Human
Appearance: Tsubaki is the perfect picture of a beautiful noblewoman. She stands at roughly 5 feet and three inches and weighs roughly 103 pounds. Her body is thin, but lean and toned thanks to her efforts at working to excel at the academy. However, while she has a fit, lean body of someone with great physical ability...for a human at least, she is still rather beautiful, having a moderately sized bust and well visible curves. Her face is particularly beautiful, set with deep, cold blue eyes, like twin deep pools of ocean water. Her face is quite elegant, sculpted cheekbones, and a heart shaped face lend her an almost angelic beauty that is framed in dark red hair.
She keeps her hair cut long, allowing it to fall to the small of her back, while two shorter 'tails' fall upon either side of her face, as if framing it with those blood red locks. It should be noted that at times her eyes are not that beautiful blue, but a more worrisome blood red, an effect of her use of the Sealed Weapon Izayoi, although they will often still be blue even while wielding that terrible weapon.
Clothing of choice: Tsubaki is almost always in uniform, although which uniform does depend. The base uniform, approved for combat and other such, is an off white outfit consisting of baggy pants, a long flowing shirt with puffy sleeves that are tucked into dark leather gloves, and a long flaring cloak that falls behind her. It has numerous small pieces from a large sash that goes around her waist. At other times she is usually seen wearing the long, heavy robe and the white engraved mask of the zero squadron, which thoroughly disguises her body to such an extent that almost no one could recognize her without first hearing her voice. This is often worn over her standard combat uniform and taken off when she believes battle is imminent.
In addition she also has a traveling uniform, which consists of a large beret that covers her hair, and a short coat with two zippers that she can wear over a simple uniform, similar to Noel's, with a white shirt, red tie, black tights and her military boots. It's generally much more comfortable for traveling than her more standard uniform.
Loyalty: Her loyalty is first and foremost to the NOL and the Imperator Librarius, as a Yayoi it could be no less.
Occupation: Tsubaki is a First Lieutenant in the Zero Squadron, the 'trash collectors' of the NOL, that even the other soldiers of the NOL despise.
Personality: Tsubaki is the picture perfect representation, of the noble, mature, and dutiful young woman. She remains calm in even some of the most stressful of situations, and will always obey any order from her superiors no matter what it is or what the cost. She is utterly and completely loyal to the NOL and the Imperator, perhaps to a fault. However, who can blame her? She has the weight of the Yayoi family's reputation upon her shoulders, and she is determined to live up to that responsibility.
Tsubaki strongly believes that a person should act with complete honor, and always try to be mindful of what appearance they are showing, lest they unwittingly give people an image of their family that they would not like. She strives to understand and help others, to stand up for those who won't or can't stand up for themselves, and tries to serve as an example for everything a member of the Duodecim can and should be. There is but one thing that can compare to her loyalty to the Librarium, and that is her love for her friends...for Noel, Carl, Makoto and JIn. She would do damn near anything for them, and choosing between them and the NOL..would likely be an impossible task for the girl, caught between her duty to her best of friends and to her family and the NOL...
Still she is human, and even she can't stop the seeds of jealousy from sprouting in her heart, even if they haven't yet taken root. She can't help but feel a bit...cheated, why did Noel get picked to serve as Jin's secretary? The knowledge nags at her mind, an itch that she just can't scratch. She knows she should be happy for one of her closest friends but...she loves Jin, they've been childhood friends and what was once a crush has slowly grown and flourished into more than just a crush, he's a brother...and maybe more than that. Yet, instead of helping him, serving alongside him in the praetorian guard, she serves as one of the NOL's trash collectors, dispensing justice to traitors and deserters. She tells herself that she is happy with her station in life, that she has no regrets...but those seeds yet exist, awaiting the water they need to take root.
Finally, on a more personal and unimportant level. She is a massive fangirl for the six heroes, and Hakumen in particular. She owns every movie and book related to them, and idolizes them in the extreme. A minor detail, but still worth mentioning.
Weaponry: Tsubaki's primary and only weapon, is the Yayoi family heirloom, the Sealed Weapon Izayoi. It is a terrible weapon, an armagus of great power. It appears as a short sword in the shape of a blood red quill of some mysterious metal, a small, book like shield with an eye set into the middle of the book's spine, and a winged hat with a blue eye set into the middle of it. It is a weapon made during the Dark War, a weapon with the ability to steal light. Izayoi can absorb light from its surroundings, and can then emit this light in a variety of ways, from forming wings of light, to even altering the short sword into seemingly the shape of staffs, claymores, and fencing foils, giving the user a variety of attacking methods provided they can keep getting opportunities to charge up the Izayoi.
However, the Sealed Weapon has properties more...useful than just that. In reality it's combat applications are somewhat lackluster compared to say a Nox Nyctores, it's real true advantage is in how it steals light. It can even steal electromagnetic waves, blocking radio communications and in fact, if the one using it knows how, it can create a space so dark that not even the likes of Takamagahara can see into, a fearsome feat indeed. However, at the cost of the power it grants, both combat and otherwise, Izayoi steals not just the light around the wielder, but the light from the wielder's eyes. Wielding Izayoi for too long will slowly render the user blind, a steep price perhaps, but one that Tsubaki is too dutiful to refuse to pay.
One last thing is important to note about the Sealed Weapon. It is sentient, possessed of its own will and intelligence kept in check by its sealed state...and more importantly it is the prototype for the Murakumo units, the very same ones that the likes of Mu-13 wield. It is not as strong as they are, but that alone should cause one to be wary, and to wonder just what would happen if this Sealed weapon, became unsealed.
Abilities: Tsubaki always excelled in the military academy. Her physical abilities are top notch for a human, she's fast, agile, and strong...for her size at least, and has a high aptitude for the use of ars magus. In fact there's very few ars magus she couldn't use, even though she really only carries around the Izayoi.
Her main form of fighting is a loose variation on the typical sword and shield fighting method first popularized in old western nations. In this case the 'book' of the Izayoi works as a buckler, deflecting and parrying attacks while she tries to dart in and strike with her short sword. Often she will use its light altering properties to extend the short sword into other forms, emitting wings of light from the book, and turning the short sword itself into fencing foils, claymores, or even a staff for casting more powerful light based attacks. Ultimately Tsubaki is indeed a quite credible threat, more than a match for any number of ordinary fighters. However, many of the foes that she will likely face in her future, are anything but ordinary.
History: The Yayoi family was one of the first families in the Duodecim, and one of the most powerful. Theirs was a family that focused on purity above all things, only those with truly exceptional aptitude with Ars Magus were allowed to breed with their members, and for a time this stringent control gave the Yayoi unprecedented power, giving them many strong and great warriors who served the NOL loyally and with fervent unwavering dedication. However, all good things must come to an end, people with such high aptitudes with Ars Magus were rather hard to come by, and the Yayoi family would not, could not, lower its standards, and so they resorted to inbreeding in order to keep their bloodline pure, and this...was the beginning of the end.
After a time the inbreeding began to take its toll, the Yayoi produced less offspring and many would often die before reaching adulthood. In addition many members were born weak, the purity that was once their greatest strength, was now a crippling weakness leaving them barely useful to the NOL. It was in this time that Tsubaki was born, she was not the first born of her family, but she was treated as such, for all her older siblings had died before she was even born. She was everything the Yayoi had lost. She was beautiful and strong, devoid of mutation or illness, and she had an aptitude for Ars Magus that was incredible. She became the golden child of the Yayoi family, and was carefully sheltered. She was never allowed outside the Yayoi family home except when her father visited one of the other Duodecim families. She was sheltered incredibly, although she was still able to see at least some of the world, and quite enjoyed doing so.
Eventually, she met Jin Kisaragi, it was during one of the big Duodecim meetings when all twelve families were getting together to discuss affairs and governance and such. Naturally Tsubaki had gone to play outside...it wasn't all that fun to play by herself. Yet she wasn't kept by herself for too long, when Jin came out. She was curious, she had never seen him before and quickly struck up a conversation with him. The Kisaragi's had a lot of children it seemed, which explained why she hadn't seen him before. Despite her insistent, childish attitude, quite understandable given she was a child at the time, Jin for some reason made a promise to be her brother and to always be her friend. It was a promise that Tsubaki would never forget, and the two seemed to become quite close. Years passed and eventually she became old enough to enroll in the Military Academy, which she did without even a second thought, there could be no other place for the prized golden child of the Yayoi family. It was there that she met two very important figures: Noel Vermillion, and Makoto Nanaya.
By some strange twist of fate, the three of them were roommates together, although initially Tsubaki was a bit...annoyed by them. She did like them and wanted to know them more, but Noel was so nervous, always apologizing at the drop of a hat, in fact she was fairly certain that you could drop a hat in front of her and get the girl to apologize and Nanaya was...cold, distant, even mean. Still she persevered, and even managed to become friends with Noel fairly easily, the two getting along fine, although Tsubaki sometimes felt like pulling out her hair when she tried to get Noel to stop apologizing and to show a little backbone, she might as well have spent her time banging her head against a brick wall but she enjoyed it all the same. Makoto was another matter, she just couldn't understand why the beastkin was so distant, even when she frequently stepped in to try and protect her from the other classmates who tried to bully the squirrel for being a beastkin. In the end it wasn't until she got some rather important advice from Jin that she finally made progress. She had spent so much time just assuming that Makoto would realize what Tsubaki was trying, that she would just understand instinctively that she hadn't really tried to speak with Makoto properly. Thus she and Noel went out to find the beastkin who had been suspended, and well they found her, by taking a plunge down a cliff to the uninhabited areas of the city. They nearly froze to death...but they finally found out why Makoto was so mean, and got her to talk to them, and so the three became friends, and were rescued by Jin. Who, along with the rest of the punishment gave them all cafeteria duty for a week, a duty that all would regret when everyone realized how terrible Noel's cooking was.
After that things progressed smoothly, the three were fast, unbreakable friends all throughout it. She even became friends with an elementary schooler named Carl Clover, who she and the rest of her friends thought was one of the sweetest boys around, although she often thought Makoto got a bit too touchy with poor Carl. Then...things took a turn for the strange. Noel was drafted into the military she was pulled into the Praetorian Guard to serve as Jin's own secretary, a role that Tsubaki had been dearly hoping to get for herself. However she swallowed her envy and congratulated Noel, trying to help her friend get some confidence for this important role she would be taking. It wasn't easy, but she managed to do it, and when she graduated she was put into the 1st Thaumaturgist squadron, the so called Zero Squadron. The trash collectors of the NOL, and was given the rank of First Lieutenant. She accepted her role with grace and served as best she could but now...now her doubts are coming to the fore. First Lieutenant Yayoi has been given a mission, to head to the 13th hierarchical city of Kagutsuchi and kill First Lieutenant Noel Vermillion and the Hero of Ikaruga, Major Kisaragi! A mission the likes of which to shake even her own staunchly loyal faith. Can she really bring herself to do it? Could Noel and Jin really have done the terrible things Captain Hazama told her of? She can't believe it...but orders are orders, and the only way she will get any answers, is to confront those two closest of friends, and so she goes...to Kagutsuchi.
Subject: Tsubaki Yayoi 
Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:16 am
