[Esper] Kaneko Mirai

FULL NAME: Kaneko Mirai
OTHER ALIAS: The Achievement Huntress
CURRENT AGE: 13
GENDER: Female
OCCUPATION: Student
SCHOOL: Tokiwadai Middle School (Formerly), Sakugawa Middle School (Currently)
FACTION: None.



APPEARANCE: Mirai stands at an average height for a thirteen year old middle school student. She has a slender frame, which helps during her aerobics training. Her bright green eyes and long purple hair ironically reveals her preference for cooler colours. She is always seen wearing a ribbon in her hair, though the colour of which changes depending on the day, as she has a colour for each day of the week. While typically she was seen before the incident with a bright smile in all situations, this has all but faded now except in the presence of staff.

HEIGHT: 155 cm
WEIGHT:  39 kg
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: None.



PERSONALITY:

I must shine brighter!
Mirai possesses an insecurity relating to her family's success. In order to escape their shadow, she strives to do everything she can to attain success by her own merit and be recognized by her own name, rather than the name of her family. This leaves her eager to please her peers and the staff at Academy City, putting all her effort into working hard and studying in order to stand out even more as a shining example of a model student. Success is her number one priority, even if she must lie about her feelings on other matters. She must excel at something, no matter what.

Appearances can make all the difference in the world  
It's not as though she truly wishes to be such a perfect little student.  Rather, she recognizes that appearances and impressions can be just as important if not more so than reality. While she does work hard and study where it counts, when it comes to social matters, she has learned to always tell people what they like to hear, to always wear a kind smile in the presence of others, and to maintain a visible social life.  While she had 'friends' in Tokiwadai, it was mostly for show and as such she kept them at a comfortable distance to keep the impression going. Overall, she masks her true goals and aspirations so that nobody may come across them.

I wanna be free
Underneath it all, she just wishes to be her own successful person, independent and unfettered. Her whole life had been spent catering to someone else's expectations, and while she believed Academy City would offer a more independent life free from her family, she quickly found herself needing to satisfy the staff's expectations in order to get anywhere. As such, this trait is actively fought back in order to attain that success she desires. However, like all repressed things, it does leak out in unexpected ways. For instance, she turned down suggestions to join a Tokiwadai faction as she felt that it would take away what little free time she had. Or even sneaking out every so often after curfew to meet in secret with a boy she liked...

(Post-Incident) Vengeful
Mirai's whole world having crashed all around her after the incident, she was left in an emotionally troubled state. Delirious and unsure of who to blame entirely for what happened, she at first lashed out against the world in general while in recovery. But once she regained her composure, after being discharged from the hospital, she began to focus her efforts on Skill-Out and her ex-boyfriend for taking away her legs. She also holds a special, cold place in her heart for anyone who dares to bully her over what happened. She may not respond to their faces, but you can be sure she is planning to have something happen to them later, if she can arrange it.

(Post-Incident) Manipulative
A darker take on her earlier traits, she sees nothing wrong with using and deceiving others to try and reach success once more, or to finally have her vengeance, so long as stepping on them won't harm her appearance or  bring harm to friends she might make. She also recognizes that others rely on their appearances too, and hopes to compromise those belonging to her targets to get what she wants. When it comes time to do 'the right thing', she will always consider how to do it in such a way that it will also bring benefit to her.

Nothing's ever over!
No matter what, Mirai is not one to surrender or accept defeat. She'd have to be killed before being counted out. She will just keep getting back up and trying again until she wins. However, this can lead to her not knowing when to quit, and post-incident, this can fuel her vengeful side as she is still assured of her (eventual) victory over her target(s) despite her condition.

Who am I, really?
Spending so much time meeting expectations and pretending to be someone she's not has not allowed her true self much room to grow. While she values independence and finding her own success, what does she plan to do with it? Where does she want to go in life? What does she actually like or dislike? She convinced herself that once she had completed the program, the answers would be there to find. But following the incident, she now has to face these tough questions like never before.

LIKES:
+Success and achievement
+Independence
+Running
+People who recognize her as her own person
+Free time
+Parfait

DISLIKES:
-Her new situation
-Being in her family's shadow
-Not being able to just be herself
-Her ex-boyfriend
-Bullies
-Skill-Out
-Being touched

STRENGTHS:
+Hard worker
+Being able to read people to figure out what they want to hear, or what they expect
+Confident. Never gives up or surrenders quietly.
+Reasonably intelligent

WEAKNESSES:
-Being concerned with appearances, she has essentially constructed an entirely false personality to show to others in order to succeed. There are occasional hints to the keen observer that she is not entirely genuine.

-Confident...to a fault. Doesn't know when to quit or when to let things go.
-Her desire to be free and independent of other people's expectations can occasionally leak out and lead her to make questionable decisions, such as dating a boy in secret.

-As a result of not being herself and not truly making friends, she has trouble bonding with peers and letting them get to know her.

-(Post-Incident): Her new attitude following her hospitalization occasionally poisons the strengths she already has and so she can use them for vengeful or manipulative purposes.

-(Post-Incident): Confined to a wheelchair, she cannot get around very quickly, and is effectively at the mercy of people who wish to do her harm should they catch her alone and unprepared. While her wheelchair is futuristic and allows her to climb stairs, and can be programmed to take her places automatically, it is still less useful than having the use of her legs, speed, and independence.

-(Post-Incident): Suffering from some degree of posttraumatic stress disorder, she has an extreme reaction to being touched by men and women alike. This reaction is quick, violent, and filled with extreme emotion.

HISTORY:  Kaneko Mirai was born as the third child to a pair of business tycoons who headed a large Japanese defense contractor. Growing up, she quickly realized that the Kaneko part of her identity was more important than being Mirai. What was expected of a successful Kaneko was readily apparent, as she soon was forced to take on a personality and live a life that wasn't her own, but rather what other people wanted. Even her own parents put on the right masks to succeed in the world of business and politics. Mirai felt as though she was being groomed for a false life, but did she even have any ideas of what sort of life to live on her own?

A rebellious streak emerged. She took on the hobby of running during her free time without her parents ever finding out; she had become adept at pretending that she was the sort of proper lady who wouldn't do something so low class.  While running, she felt a degree of freedom and of being temporarily unrestricted by the expectations placed on her. She enjoyed this low key manifestation of a desire for independence. She craved more, and even a way to break free of her perfectly arranged life, maybe to finally find some way to stand on her own.

Becoming a student at Academy City was the first true thing she decided on her own, shocking even her own parents with her uncharacteristic insistence. Knowing how to push their buttons, she enticed them with promises of attaining the success and fame expected of a Kaneko. If she could succeed in such a prestigious place no Kaneko has ever set foot in, the future would be even brighter for them. The lessons she learned from her family ironically served her well, as she realized that even in this wonderful city, appearances and expectations mattered more than ever.

With her hard work and drive for success, she was eventually placed in Tokiwadai, where she learned even more lessons concerning appearances, and found herself once again burdened by expectations. She could run freely, but she needed to construct a social life befitting that of a "Tokiwadai Student." She made a small group of 'friends' to show that she at least had an active social life. She could never really connect with them despite the inane discussions and silly activities that were associated with middle school friendships. She also volunteered for many activities around the school, all to fuel her assumed role as 'model student.'

All of this had left her with little time to herself, and so she shocked her peers by rejecting calls to join one of the many so-called Factions of Tokiwadai. This discomfort at having to turn down something prestigious for a change weighed on her mind, and so she realized that she needed an 'escape' every now and then in order to stay on top of the life she built here. She took to occasionally breaking curfew to experience life in the city without nearly as many burdens and prying eyes. It didn't take her long to run into a nice boy named Sekigahara Jo, who claimed to be doing the same thing she was doing. The two bonded over their need to live their lives according to others' expectations, and their meetings became something Mirai looked forward to very much.

These meetings didn't last for long. Jo had kept a secret from her; namely his transient association with a particularly vengeful branch of Skill-Out. They knew where he tended to hang out, and naturally, they discovered him with a high-class girl. Efforts to convince them to leave failed, and the continued harassment led to Mirai flaunting her Tokiwadai student status in an attempt to intimidate them. This did not have the intended effect; what had been predatory curiosity transformed into righteous fury toward the person symbolizing all that was wrong with Academy City. Confronted with the possibility of bodily harm, the cowardly Jo sold Mirai out in exchange for his own safety once the confrontation became heated. When law enforcement arrived, they discovered the poor girl barely clinging to life with a small hand axe buried into her back, and cuts and bruises innumerable.

She lived, but awoke with a horrible phobia of being touched, particularly by the male hospital staff. Consciousness came and went during her recovery process. Her life was saved, but she could never walk again, according to the hospital staff. The hand axe destroyed her spinal cord from the lumbar vertebrae down. She was even at one point informed that an investigation into the incident revealed her breaking curfew and possibly being associated with Skill-Out. Some suits even talked about her no longer being able to utilize her ability. Being informed of her transfer to Sakugawa Middle School finally made her new reality clear: Her world had come crashing down around her. After losing nearly everything, could she start again from the beginning? Armed with her new futuristic wheelchair, she faces an uncertain future.

RANK: N/A
LEVEL:
Viscoelastic Impulse

Through the AIM Diffusion Field, she can control the tensile strength of her striated leg muscles (that is, muscles which one can voluntarily control) to allow for increased running speed past human limits up to 7.00x her unaided running speed. This control is highly variable and specific,  allowing for specific 'settings'  such as 1.55, where the 1 is her normal, unaided running speed.  Tensile strength is the ratio of pressure exerted on the muscle during compression, so the ability is used to strengthen the muscles during this compression step, and then released for the relaxation step which follows, and then is applied to the compression step again.  As the ability has to be turned on and off in such rapid succession, greater concentration and focus is required the higher the 'setting' goes. After all, the faster one goes, the more quickly the ability must be applied and then removed with precise timing needed to keep it up.

Applications and Limits: The primary application for this ability is to enhance Mirai's running speed past human limits. However, the ability does not bypass the body's need for energy and oxygen for running, nor does it reduce lactic acid buildup and fatigue that comes about as a result.  As such, sustaining an enhanced run becomes more and more difficult the higher the 'setting' becomes, and on the highest settings, practical use of the ability is all but gone due to these drawbacks. Thanks to her aerobics, endurance, and breathing training, she can put her ability to practical use on lower settings.

Common Setting Ranges:

1.50x - 2.50x: Mirai can sustain this setting range for the longest period of time thanks to her training. Heart rate increases minimally and increases the need for oxygen intake, but not enough to impair her health or performance unless sustained for more than 20 to 30 minutes without a break. Lactic acid buildup becomes a problem after about 15 minutes though, and without having a lot of carbs to burn, she's likely to stop before reaching even that limit. Requires minimal concentration and focus.

3.00x - 4.50x: This is where things get more difficult, and the differences are quite obvious. Even with her training, Heart rate increases quickly to such a degree that she is out of breath within 10  to 15 minutes if the speed setting remains constant. Lactic acid buildup rears its ugly head after about 5 minutes, and Mirai will need a pretty carb-rich meal routine before attempting to test her limits here. Requires increased concentration and focus to sustain, to such a degree that she would have trouble processing an obstacle in her path, and would react to it more slowly.

5.00x - 6.00x: Now this is crazy. No amount of training will help her here, and she'd be lucky to sustain this level of speed for longer than 1 minute even with all the carbs she could ever need. Heart rate and oxygen requirements skyrocket to such a degree that she'd be lucky to still be able to stand upright after that 1 minute if constantly sustained. Lactic acid doesn't even factor in to this due to the speed at which respiratory and cardiac distress would force her to stop. Concentration and focus is increased to a level that she would need to plan her route out ahead of time and hope nothing gets in the way, as she wouldn't be able to react to it.

6.50 - 7.00x: Completely insane. The best she can hope for with this blinding speed, is to quickly move forward a few meters at a time in a small burst. Useful maybe for getting a very quick head start at the beginning of a race before easing into lower settings. Or maybe she could quickly get past a person blocking her way. Either way, she'll be out cold if used any more than these rare quick bursts. Concentration for this setting is so high that she's effectively blind during the short burst, unable to process or react to anything until it's completed.

OTHER ABILITIES:

Aerobics, Endurance and Breathing Training
In order to compensate for the increased strain, energy consumption, heart rate increase, and oxygen intake requirements of her ability, she has undergone intense physical training provided by her school. This allows her to practically utilize her ability on lower settings without harming herself.

CHARACTER THEME: N/A


PLAYER'S NAME: Kaneko Mirai
CHATANGO NAME: Lemouri
RATING: M
FACE CLAIM: Ginga Nakajima (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Innocent)
OTHER CHARACTERS: Erin Lightheart
MISC. INFORMATION: Nyau

Man, the frequency of evals has died down rather heavily. Where’s all the new profiles and people?

At least I have you to dance with.


I. The History — Just a few pointers

OK, you mentioned that it was strange from her peers’ perspective that Kaneko turned down an offer to join Judgement. But that shouldn’t be that much of a thing, considering Tokiwadai is a harbour for princesses, of which numerous actually never leave the safe areas that is School Garden, their dorms and the bus routes connecting them.
Brought on point: It’s a bit special for a Tokiwadai student to join organisations like Judgement etc. since they do actually mean real handwork which is oftentimes underling work like picking up trash etc., not really suited for the prestigious ojou deparment.
A good well fitting suggestion would be for her to reject joining a Faction instead. In Tokiwadai they’re like minor organisations of high prestige, similar to school clubs, just way higher in social status, not just in terms of the school, but the entire world, than the ordinary. That’d serve the purpose exactly the same way or even better, I think. For further information…

Besides that I would actually push some more weight on her status as a Tokiwadai student in context of the incident. I mean, being a high level Esper is already quite problematic, but how should they have found out? On the other hand her being a Tokiwadai Student, an elite of elites and one of the School Garden’s precious gems, is something they could have found out with ease and — even more impactful — would serve as an embodiment of Skill-Out’s struggles with Academy City’s social system thus making their rage even more justified.

The suggestions have been applied. Thank you~

Whew, this took way longer than I was hoping for it, too. When I started this eval I actually wanted to return to the good old fast days, but I guess I failed right here.

I'm terribly sorry for the overall rather long delay, but that should be something I'll try to improve on in the future.


I'm liking her, so I'm curious where she will take the IC.