Hirota Bunko
Song of Shadow
Shadow Puppet Theater
Bone Flower of the Western Wind
Distinguished Disciple of House Genji
Deputy Custodian of the Vault of the Court of the Prismatic Storm
Description
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 106 lb.
Ethnicity: East Asian
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Medium simple black
Clothing: Black or white business casual
Comportment/Cadence: Reserved
Distinctions: A slender sliver of a woman, Bunko seems to embody the perfect Japanese lady: pale as death, quiet and respectful, yet possessed with a penetrating and inscrutable gaze; she occasionally affects reading glasses over those eyes, which match the monochromatic dresses she typically favors
Supernatural Qualities: Something about her seems odd and even disturbing, but it could just be the unblinking and rarely-smiling expression she constantly wears, like an Asian Wednesday Addams
Accoutrements: Light jewelry
Traits: Appearance 5 (delicate); Style 1
Demon Shintai Form
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 215 lb.
Eyes: Iridescent
Hair: none
Clothing: none
Supernatural Qualities: When she calls upon her P'o and assumes her demon form, hair recedes and skin vanishes; two antenna sprout from her scalp where soft hair once grew, while a black-shelled exoskeleton grows in around her vaguely and bipedal body; her arms solidify into pincers while her head has become truly horrifying: insectoid, complete with clicking mandibles; however, it is the eyes that seize the soul, mesmerizing in their dread, paralyzing her victims in fear so that this mantis-like monster can bite the head clean off...
Traits: Appearance 0
"Careful, you oaf! This vase is worth more than your entire miserable mortal family."
History
Date of Birth: February 5th, 1948
Home: Ino, Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, Japan
Family: Hirota Hikaru and Usami (parents), Noburo (older brother)
Second Breath: External Supernatural Trigger (Bunko was born in the aftermath of World War II to a traditional yet impoverished family in rural Japan; their hard-nosed expectations for their children drove her older brother to alcoholism while she excelled academically, but still managed to disappoint them by becoming a "mere" municipal librarian; her poverty and consequential poor diet caused hypertension that went undiagnosed in her young adulthood, resulting in a stroke right there in the library, and no one found her collapsed body till it was too late; she regained awareness in a frozen-over, war-ransacked hell-library of Kakuri; she snuck out, encountering few demon guards in this quiet place, and made her way up the Ebon Path and back into her body buried now for a year in the town cemetery), 1970
Mentor: Saito Shozo
The Test: Trial by Influence (a local gaki Mandarin already divined her return from Hell, and as she crawled out as a ravenous beast, the elder subdued and restored her to her senses; he also became her sensei, as his cool mien appealed to her aesthetic, and she took up the Song of the Shadow beneath him, passing the initial exams of the Ré with the ease of a woman whose intelligence had long been undervalued and unappreciated)
Comrades: Luxing Jingtan, Kim O’Min, Gantumur Alaqa, Iyashi Haruka, Iyashi Mako, Pan Ju’zhen, P'i Hyo-Ju, Reuben Wood
Key Event #1: Awe & Wonder (Bunko always lived as a cold fish and it came easy for her now, too; her master's warnings about not closing herself off entirely to emotions confused the young Bone Flower, but she stuck to the path and his wisdom in this Court of Four Arrows)
Key Event #2: Awe & Wonder (she completed a traditional 15-year Ré under Saito-Sensei, that time spent in close reflection and dedicated scholarship as the best students always demonstrate)
Key Event #3: Treachery (her devotion was such that her uji recommended her as an "exchange" on loan to the Quincunx in Beijing; she studied and shared in the Blood Court's libraries, all the while serving as an unwitting spy thanks to serving her sensei's wraiths as a Consort vessel; as she built up her own impressive library, becoming a lorist for the Kuei-jin became her primary ambition)
Transition: Shift in Purpose (after that ten-year exchange period ended, she returned to Kochi City and the court there, only to be informed that she would now be sent to the Court of the Prismatic Storm in San Francisco to aid their scholarship; she looked forward to the opportunity to compile the secrets of Western shen as well, and soon settled into her new role and Wu)
The P’o
Appearance: Bunko sees her P'o positively, sometimes too positively: as a praying mantis that patiently awaits for its prey to venture into its camouflaged path. But many mantis aren't sitting still because they await prey. Many are just snoozing and letting opportunities pass them by.
Trigger: Whenever she's asked or forced to undertake a task that will demand extra effort (i.e., spend Willpower).
Significant Other
Name: Reuben Wood, 2012
Nature: Companionship
Reuben
Weakness
Silence Is Olden
Bunko stays quiet as a matter of course, both for her Dharmic philosophy and Road Back and her personality (and it fits her job as librarian, too). But sometimes, when something must be said, she still won't say it. She isn't mute. She does speak. She just likes to observe the consequences of leaving so many...lacunas...in everyday activity.
Likelihood of Corruption
Average.
Bunko remains dedicated to the Song of the Shadow but as a relatively young disciple, there is much she does not know that may threaten her very soul.
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