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Full name: Murakami Valentine
Nickname: Rumour Witch, Rummy
Reason for Nickname: Few understand Murakami, and she is surrounded by rumours and myths as to the extent of her full abilities, and her physical condition. It relates to her appearance, as well; she is often covered from head to toe, which makes knowing what she looks like under her gear rather confusing. Rummy is the short, almost pet-name that those close, or close enough, to Murakami use. They are rare indeed; often found in the top seats, since they are the only ones who would call her that to her face.

Age: ???
Eye Color: A blue so pale it could be white, in the eye that is her own. Her other eye is a robotic prosthesis powered by her reiki. It is rare that anyone can see her normal eye, as she is usually wearing a lens across it. The lens is her primary means of information reception; it acts as a small computer screen on the other side, feeding her info from a signal powered by her.
Eye Shape: Slight angle, her robotic prosthesis is a little more wide than the good eye.
Glasses or contacts?: The lens over one eye, robotic prosthesis for the other eye. The lens isn't physically connected to her in any damaging way; although she wears it whenever she is awake, and potentially sleeping, it is nothing more than an expensive piece of glass, which is secured in place by a clip and some ties around her ear and beneath her ponytail. If the lens gets torn off, she can still search for information, but she has trouble keeping it as organized as she would like. The lens simply allows her to access in a visual way what she knows conceptually.
Hair color: red
Hair length and style: A thick ponytail, pulled up high on her head, wrapped around the base by a black scarf. It, nonetheless, reaches down mid-back.
Face shape: Largely covered by scarves and her lens. Underneath that, she has a doll-like chin, too round for her liking, which is probably why she covers it with piles of scarves.
Skin tone: A little too pale, due to her general covered state.
Distinguishing features: On her right wrist, she has a nano-technology tattoo of a blurred barcode, which changes depending on her physical state. If she is healthy, the barcode twists into an orchid-like design. If she is sick, then the barcode appears. What it is there for is subject to speculation. Essentially, although it's another rumour, this one is true: She allowed Deus to experiment, trying to alter the cells of her body themselves with concentrated reiki. It didn't quite pan out like it was expected to, but she is left with the aftermath, and certain individuals know what it is for (the DEUS scientists responsible, probably Kariya, probably most or at least some of the other captains related to her division's work. Knowing how to read her tattoo may be of assistance in assessing her physical condition. There is also one shot of white through her hair. Not a physical feature to do with her body, but she always wears thick chains looped around her shoulders, which drape across her chest in a cross and rest against her hips.

Health Condition: Gets sick rarely, and when she does get sick, she recovers practically the next day. She does have frequent headaches, which can make her a little cranky; it is rumoured that the headaches are the product of her robotic eye. Also gets cold easily, although that's not so much a health condition.
Overall Constitution: Lean and largely healthy. Not too strong, physically, but one of her better-kept secrets is that she is an intensely nimble, fast person. She is also strong enough to wield her chains with ease, although she has worked with them for so long that it follows more to momentum than to incredible strength. The chains act as a power inhibitor; when Murakami removes them, which she seldom does, her ghost walk and generally her mobility increase significantly, turning her into a fearsomely quick opponent who lashes out with chains which she wields like a whip. Whips that break bones? Murakami says, "Yes please."

Home District: Guren District
Current Residence: Candidate for Division 5 Captain's position, currently resides alone in Ryokugen.
Soulborn or not?: "???"
(If Soulborn) Social Status & family: If she has family in Guren, Ryokugen, or anywhere in Shomonkai, she doesn't show it.
Occupation: Candidate for Division 5 Captain's position
Faction: Soul Army

Talents/Skills: Her career, mainly, and anything required for or relating to that. She's also quite knowledgeable with wine. Folds origami with precision, due to her need to keep busy at all times. She seldom "switches off" from career-mode, so if she has other talents, they largely fall by the wayside. She is strangely receptive to listening to music played by others, though, and it is rumoured that she had an excellent singing voice before she ceased talking. She wields her chains with a smooth confidence to snag and trap criminals, as well as inflict painful lashes and welts on those who need to be stopped.

Relationship skills: Sometimes unapproachable, especially if she is gathering information. She will often hold up her hand to stop someone from trying to talk to her if she is reading something important or trying to scan, without saying a word. Those who understand her know that she needs her concentration for the amount of reiki it takes for her to scan for information, but those who do not know her well think of her as aloof, cruel and unfriendly because of her crisp and abrupt choice of communication.

Habits: Has to keep her hands busy, so she often drums her fingers on her thighs, or folds Origami. She may look inattentive while doing so, but is surely taking in more details than it would appear. Disrupted sleep patterns due to her headaches, so she tends to wake up at strange hours.

Hobbies: Work, training her ghost step and tracking, adores Shogi and Chinese Checkers with her closer friends.

Virtues: Tactical, devoted, sincere. Willing to work as a team, and adores those who work with her for the betterment of their environment. Keeps thinking consistently even in the most stressful situations.

Flaws: Irritable, reclusive, occasionally has difficulty communicating and wishes she could just control everything and not have to worry about someone being a stray thread.

Overall Personality: Murakami is usually only noticed by the alert or perceptive. It's not that she is invisible or anything, but she tends to divert attention from herself by remaining in the shadows, half-hidden. It is rumoured that she can deflect attention from herself using her reiki, but that is unconfirmed; more likely, she is simply practiced at the art of being uninteresting. In general she is perceived as precise, quiet, a little strange and of much speculation.

Personality key question: How would your character spend a rainy day?: Well, she probably would not know it was a rainy day, due to being holed up so often, tracking. She has a penchant for sitting in dark places, which creeps everyone out a little. If she was outside, though... that's a whole other story. Before she was aiming for the captain's position, when she was rather unknown and able to behave largely however she wanted, she used to strip down to the barest clothing acceptable and she would use the rain to ghost step as far and as fast as she could. On those days, she was happiest, racing through without being noticed. It was probably her speed in the rain which began to alarm or alert her fellow Division members. The rain felt good on her skin, and it calmed her, as well as feeding her reiki to step beyond her usual means. She was eventually told that it was unacceptable behaviour, once they had caught her, and she has never done it since, though she has wanted to. Instead, she will stay inside and scan for valuable information, like casting a great reiki net across the district. If it is storming, she can reach out furthest. Her abilities are stronger in the dark, so great storms which cast the city in shadow serve her well.

How do they dress?: Very similarly to the black, traditional outfit of a captain, but she also wears black scarves piled up around her neck and one on the base of her ponytail, wrapped around it. She wears the black hakama, but instead of the kimono she wears a black tank top with a filmy deep brown, so much that it looks black, long sleeved shirt underneath it. Her thick chains coiled around her shoulders and across her chest.

Favorite Sayings: "I'll give you a head start. Sorry, just kidding." "Is that really your best guess?" "Division Five will investigate to the best of our abilities, and the criminal will surely be pinned between the devil and the deep blue sea. My Division is that sea. I will be that devil. There will be no escape."

Vernacular: (how does your character speak?) She uses a reiki-generated voice simulation, which broaches on formal. It is thought that no one actually knows what the Rumour Witch sounds like. It's not speaking with minds, it projects an audible voice in monotone, which sounds a little stiff for the most part.

Overall Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): As graceful as a rumour can be. Mostly, she is aloof, although those who occupy the top seats are said to make her smile with ease.

Reigen name: Udumbara
Container: Murakami's robotic eye.

Reigen false-form: A flickering, white fog which travels outwards from Murakami and chills the room.
Release: Udumbara, the wicked approach. The gates of paradise must be shut and locked.
Reigen false-form ability: To locate, precisely, any spirit, soul, oni or object through her shadow affinity. She channels the reiki of shadows to search for the whereabouts of her object of focus.


Reigen true name: Udumbara no assai o kujite (Translates to a kind of plea for Udumbara's gaze to crush: Udumbara + assai (gaze) + kujite (request for crushing))
Reigen true-form: Binding seal on the ground in a thick fog, pale chains wrapped around the target.
Release: "Udumbara no assai o kujite, the wicked have entered the gates of paradise. Let your unwavering eyes find them, your crushing gaze bind, your clean light sear. Retribution."
Reigen true-form ability: Not only does Udumbara find what she desires, but it will draw the stray reiki in shadows together into a powerful binding seal which will hold the object in place. Has the added option of causing intense pain or purification to the individual or thing, but she will have to absorb or withstand a certain portion of all that she inflicts.

Rumours associated with the Rumour Witch:

⇛ She has been spotted around Nekonogetsu rather frequently and is rumoured to be close friends with Tsukimoto Kariya.

⇛ She has no voice, and the synthetic reiki voice she speaks with is her only means of communication.

⇛ There is no rumour witch, it is all an elaborate hoax executed by division 5 to make criminals cautious and reduce crime rates.

⇛ The Rumour Witch doesn't have a heart, she only has cogs and machine parts animated by complex reiki.

⇛ The lens she wears is just a fake thing with squiggly symbols drawn on; it doesn't actually tell her anything.

⇛ She once crushed one of the top four Division 5 members against a door for slapping her a**.

⇛ There is no distance the Rumour Witch can't conquer in the blink of an eye.

⇛ The Rumour Witch never sleeps.

⇛ Her name is "Valentine" because she eats the hearts of men who grow to love her, which is why she is never seen with a significant other.

⇛ Cherry blossoms are her favourite flower.

⇛ Her information gathering extens even to the center of Shomonkai.


⇛ She volunteered herself as a DEUS guinea pig, which altered her physical condition and her sight considerably. It has also changed the way that Reiki is used in her body.

⇛ She enjoys long walks on the beach (I jest with this one >.>; <3)

..... To Be Continued!

How the Lens Works: It's actually just a fancy bit of glass secured to her head. The reason it does anything impressive, or useful, at all is Rummy uses it to instantly transfer data she is receiving from her reiki skills through to the display and absorbing it by doing so; it's instantly ready for her to read, that way. If the lens were to break (it's really not that impressive a piece of equipment on its own), she would simply have to sort through the data in her own head first. It's basically like missing the convenient step of having it laid all out for her; she can still do it, it just takes longer, more concentration, and makes her extremely irate. The sight in her good eye is excellent, formidably so. If anyone were to break her lens, they'd better watch out for her wrath, because that's when the chains will definitely come out. Her lens acts as a fail-safe trigger, though, which is another vital reason she uses it. In the event that someone would realize she was tracking them and trace it backwards, the lens filters incoming "signals" and data and it would shatter if the prosthetic eye, or her person at all, was in real danger. It is possible that someone who was extremely powerful, or skilled and using an enhancement, could bypass her lens; that would be a rare and astonishing case. She would either take direct damage to her prosthetic eye, or the eye would rupture, causing damage to the casing around the socket. To limit the possibility of this happening, Murakami would only use her skills without the lens in extreme cases.

How the Voice Alternation Works: It's actually extremely simple and requires very little energy on her part. She gathers a little reiki and spreads it down her throat; when she speaks, the reiki vibrates and changes the sound of her voice. The only problem with this is, like what happens with her eye, having so much reiki in one place so often, especially a tender place like the throat, means that she has to seek health treatments often. It's rumoured that she does them herself at home.

How the Searching Works: The reiki of each individual has a unique set of characteristics when Murakami uses her lens to analyze it. She doesn't have to meet someone to trace their signal, but she does need a sampling of them. It's more like detective work in that way; if she has gathered, or someone else has gathered, a sample of something which a person's reiki was used on or near, Murakami can identify the components of that reiki ability and follow its trail using her ability. When she is frustrated or has minimal concentration, she may only search the building in which she is located and the buildings on either side of her. In ideal seclusion, while working her net of observation, she is able to search in the district she is currently located. When it rains, she can search her own district and up to two adjoined ones. She has yet to be able to search all districts at once, and is seldom able to search the central district; that is why she is extremely frustrated when a criminal eludes her by escaping into the central district. Searching for someone she is familiar with extends her search radius depending on the extent of their bond, and searching for a stranger reduces her search radius. A single meeting with someone, even if it is by chance, will enhance her ability to locate them at a later date.


Why her name is Rumour Witch: For all anyone knows, maybe she does start her own rumours. She might actually feed people false information about herself, in order to see if it gets back to her in one form or another, in order to test the loyalty and secrecy of those around her. But that kind of forethought would be frightening, would it not? She does seem to be rather delighted to orchestrate everything around her...

I really like the idea, and it would be very interesting to discover in time just how Rummy has come to be in the condition she's in; like with the prosthesis and mechanical voicebox. The chains suit her concept very well.

Just a thought, but a rumor witch who's covered from head to toe for the most part probably won't be unobtrusive. She may be able to deflect attention, but calling her appearance "unobtrusive" doesn't seem to quite fit.

Some things to consider and perhaps tell us about her special ability - what does pass for avoiding this special tech of hers? Not so much as a catch-all for instant god-modding as much as an example to further understand how it works. What happens if somebody is not afraid of the light and cannot be bound? Is there a temporary effect (confusion or whatever have you) that may come upon them instead? What happens if Rummy (havens forbid) should not be able to fully succeed? Is there any sort of repercussion on her end? Successful or not, what effect does the ability have on her?

For her Reigen (and keep in mind, this may just be me), "the gates of Paradise must be shut and locked." doesn't exactly make me think of spying through the shadows. It seems more like a preventative or barrier/shield. It makes more sense when you find her more powerful Reigen, however, so this is probably more speculation.

I think it will be very interesting to see Rummy prove herself as a good potential Captain with her lacking more physical abilities, but with what she has, she's still very much worth appreciation and definitely more than a second thought.

@Crispers: Already implemented some of the changes/info you suggested or asked about xD;

@Livie: ALRIGHT, here's some tentative answers? xD <3

1. Her nickname: Should she not be the rumour witch, then? She doesn't start rumours, but I definitely based her around the idea of someone being so... inhuman from their own choices that people have trouble understanding them as one cohesive thing, or even a real thing.
2. Headaches: Kind of a chicken vs egg thing; not sure if the headaches are caused because of the prosthetic eye, or because the prosthetic eye is used to channel so much reiki. It's most likely the reiki channeled there, and she could use a good cleansing, but doesn't have anyone she trusts who is capable of cleansing the eye.
3. Voice Simulation: I'm not 100% if it's even okay to have her speak by a generated voice xD; I'm considering making it part of her backstory, or... at the moment, my answer is simply that she believes the voice is a shaky and unreliable communication tool. She believes it betrays too much of her and that it may create undesirable bonds. Eliminating that personal touch allows her, she believes, to be less attached to the transient elements of her life.

4. As for power being traced back to her source: Her lens acts as a failsafe trigger. In the event that someone would realize and trace backwards, the lens filters incoming "signals" and data and it would shatter if the prosthetic eye was in real danger. It is possible that someone who was extremely powerful, or skilled and using an enhancement, could bypass her lens; that would be a rare and astonishing case. She would either take direct damage to her prosthetic eye, or the eye would rupture, causing damage to the casing around the socket.

5. How Murakami tracks reisatsu: The reiki of each individual has a unique set of characteristics when Murakami uses her lens to analyze it. She doesn't have to meet someone to trace their signal, but she does need a sampling of them. It's more like detective work in that way; if she has gathered, or someone else has gathered, a sample of something which a person's reiki was used on or near, Murakami can identify the components of that reiki ability and follow its trail using her ability. When she is frustrated or has minimal concentration, she may only search the building in which she is located and the buildings on either side of her. In ideal seclusion, while working her net of observation, she is able to search in the district she is currently located. When it rains, she can search her own district and up to two adjoined ones. She has yet to be able to search all districts at once, and is seldom able to search the central district; that is why she is extremely frustrated when a criminal eludes her by escaping into the central district. Searching for someone she is familiar with extends her search radius depending on the extent of their bond, and searching for a stranger reduces her search radius. A single meeting with someone, even if it is by chance, will enhance her ability to locate them at a later date.

6. Guilt-aura reading I'm going to agree with you on; too confusing, and kind of shaky; I'm going to change that so Murakami can read people's FACES, in any average way, but she doesn't make any concrete judgments based on that, ever. It's more like a parlour trick than an investigative ability. Would also explain why she doesn't get close to others too easily.