Suzuka Yukari (Freeman)

Suzuka Yukari (Freeman) is a Nekovalkyrja NH-29 serving in the Star Army of Yamatai. She is the team leader for Black Spiral's 44th Fireteam special operations unit.

Suzuka was created in early 2006 by Jake and has been his avatar character ever since.

	涼風 縁 (ゆかり) (Freeman)
General Information		Physical Characteristics
Species:	Nekovalkyrja (NH-29)	Height:	160 cm (5'3”)
Gender:	Female	Weight:	58 kg (128 lbs)
Age:	10	Measurements:	86-64-92 cm
Organization:	Black Spiral	Bra size:	32D (American)
Fleet:	None	Hair color:	Light brown
Occupation:	Team Leader, 44th Fireteam	Hair type:	Long, wavy
Rank:	None	Eye color:	Green
Zodiac:	Aquarius	Boot size:	9 (U.S.) in men's
Current Assignment:	44th Fireteam

Yukari is a GM PC.

Yukari has faintly olive-colored skin; wavy, voluminous, thick light brown hair that falls between her shoulder blades; and bright, almost emerald-like green eyes. Her ears are pointed and coated on the backs with short, velvety fur a slightly darker shade of brown than her hair.

Her frame is curvy for a Neko, with a seeming softness to her that belies her physical fortitude. Muscle definition is clear along her arms, legs and shoulders, with her stomach being flat and slim. Her bottom is a bit of a bubble, however; her hips are wider than is usual for a Neko and her chest is pleasing to the eye in size and shape.

Yukari's face is slender and roughly heart-shaped, with a pronounced jawline, cheekbones and a softly pointed chin. Her nose is a little tall in the bridge. Her eyes are a brilliant green. She has thinner lips that she twists and contorts very aptly into all manner of expressions.

To see artwork of Yukari, please visit her gallery.

Yukari speaks Nepleslian with a slight Yamataian accent, always with proper grammar. When she needs to speak faster, she will switch to Yamataian, which she commonly does in the battlefield.

She usually puts her hair in a pony tail set low on her head, but has been known to wear it in pigtails and down.

Her gaze is very intense, especially when she is upset or strongly feeling some emotion.

Armaments include a SiZi 79 Police pistol.

Yukari wears a Raltean love ribbon in her hair, or occasionally around her neck similar to a choker. It is a brilliant red and blue color, with gold laced into it. The ribbon tends to catch the light and flash along the gold highlights.

Yukari has two genetic tattoos on her body not related to her SPINE:

• A black Yamataian eel coiling twice around her right arm until just before her wrist bone, its mouth opened to show several rows of sharp, tiny teeth with a single beady yellow eye.
• A large, shimmering salmon on her left thigh, toward the middle, with its tail on the back of her leg and the head on the front.

Overall, Yukari is a very serious person. She holds high such concepts as duty, and she demands the best from herself. Because of that, her interactions with others are sometimes dour, especially if she believes she does not have time to be friendly. However, those whom with she is friends are held close and fiercely defended, for she knows all too well what it is like to lose people she cares about.

Yukari also is a tough soul. She does not get down easily, but rarely does she speak with great optimism; for her, things simply must be overcome in one fashion or another, and languishing on the negative is not constructive to her.

When she does cut loose, Yukari actually is a warm, pleasant individual to talk to. She tends to find pleasure in simple things — food, nature and good company. She is known to carry dried salmon strips with her, a gift from her husband, Tom.

Yukari is a battle-hardened leader who lacks the gift of natural, abundant confidence, but makes up for it with passion and compassion. Even when disciplining.

She carries some pragmatism in her soul, thanks to Kotori, but above all she believes in doing the right thing. She is reluctant to take on causes she does not believe in herself, but she also has the determination to think she can sometimes achieve a favorable outcome despite a negative premise. Her idealism only grows with the continued slog of the NMX war, as she sees righteousness as a path to victory.

Others mean more to her than herself. She has difficulty in truly punishing those under her command, but she knows she must in order to protect them from themselves and others who would do them harm.

Yukari is much more a sergeant of troops than a commander. She is best when she is on the front lines, with her soldiers, commanding them from the front. She rarely invests in complex strategies, believing simplicity is not only beautiful, but effective.

She looks to a person's strengths and attempts to maximize them in battle, but this sometimes leads to her covering too many bases herself. Though she is learning to trust others with more duties, it is a slow process.

Yukari sees her role as wife in many different ways, but the most prominent ones come from her being Nekovalkyrja and Tom being Yamataian. She is ever aware of how some Neko feel about one of their race chaining herself to just one person, but she accepts the words and remains resolute to stay with him.

It helps that she has an understanding partner. Tom knows she is not the perfect, ideal human wife, and cannot expect her to be a subservient, domestic housewife, though Yukari does try, if only to give Tom something familiar.

The gender roles often are switched, however, leading Yukari to be careful about how she appears when Tom is involved. She wants to protect him because she loves him and knows she has the power, but she does not want to emasculate him.

Yukari, being among the oldest mass-produced Neko ever made, has seen her race used for far too long.

Rather than bear hatred against humans, though, she sees her role as an agent of change. She believes Neko should allowed to be Neko outside the Star Army instead of being forced to become Yamataians, and she wants to work toward that goal.

Far from believing Neko are superior, Yukari speaks with passion about how Neko must be given a chance to grow in order to become emotional equals to humanity. She sees Neko as a people who must become more than manmade weapons, without expecting help.

She is proud of her race, however, for surviving and growing as much as it has, and she shows this in the face of racism against Neko.

Even as she wants Nekovalkyrja to be free, she knows they have a duty to protect the Empire that birthed them. Imperfect as it is, Yamatai is home and Yukari would die to save it.

What she won't do, however, is die to save it from itself. She wants Yamatai to acknowledge and repent its sins, then grow into the pure nation it strives to be. She lives in much the same way, admitting to her flaws quickly and trying to grow beyond them.

A small portion of Yukari believes she is the “Goddess of the Lost,” created to lead Nekovalkyrja to a new future within the Empire they have served for so long and for which they have suffered so much. It is a title by which, on the surface of her psyche, she remains bewildered. Below that, however, remain questions about her interactions with the PANTHEON system and how it has become a different experience now to use it.

This role ties into much of her personality, especially her pursuit of what is right and just. She lives as an example, emphasizing virtuous behavior and justice for the people around her.

She believes her power is not in her body, but in her soul. That power she believes is unique to Nekovalkyrja, who she has come to believe have true souls just as humans do.

As a Nekovalkyrja transport pilot of the “reverse Yui clone”-type (red hair, green eyes), Yukari didn't engage in much combat, but she saw plenty. Tami, the Battle of Nepleslia and the beginning of the Xyainbor Campaign – even for someone designed for war, Yukari was on a bit of an edge by YE 26. During that time, in YE 24, she was also tested for duty as an NH-17T-type — two months she remembers very little about, other than how she looked and a few faces from her time there. She was lucky enough to get some time off after a few months of planetary service and see Yamatai on an organized tour for Nekos. A visit to Ash Bay changed her life. The soothing sounds of the water put her troubled mind at ease. She was even able to rent a boat and pilot. She fell in love with the sea almost immediately, and vowed to return someday (she later did, spending 39,000 KS on securing a small but sturdy cottage on the bay).

Most of this time, blissfully, was spent doing traffic and communication work on Yamatai. She did not get the time off, however, to visit Ash Bay again.

When the NH-22C series of android bodies began production in late YE 27, Yukari opted for one, and decided a change of pace would go well with a new body. She entered Kyoto Academy and trained for a full year to become an intelligence officer, rising to the paid rank of Ittô Juni. Instead of bumping her up to the real white panels, her instructors decided to let her stay as a seitô and let a commander promote her. Their justification – “She needs to get her feet wet first.”

In YE 29, after a very brief assignment to the infamous gunship Sakura, Yukari was selected for a new position within the 5th Expeditionary Fleet. The position, “Flag Aide,” served Taisho Motoyoshi Katsuko directly. Yukari did not understand why she had been chosen for such a prestigious spot, but she followed orders.

After not more than a few days as Flag Aide, the KAMI unit of the Iori went mad and began infecting and killing the crew. Yukari, along with Hatsubutai Ayano, Corro Adlich and Ryuuza Kurodai, attempted to save the Taisho Motoyoshi Katsuko while fighting the crew infected by the KAMI unit, which called itself Ichiro. However, they were not successful in freeing her. During this time, Yukari shot and killed one Ushiba Matsu in cold blood. She was under the influence of Ichiro, though she did not take it that way.

In the end, Ichiro fled to the 5th XF's flagship, the Akuro, in an attempt to attack Nepleslia. Along with Juro Ichiro, the attack was foiled and the flagship destroyed. Yukari took several days to heal, then took leave to Yamatai and her beach cabin.

After a … chance meeting with Ketsurui Kotori, then-commanding officer of the infamous YSS Sakura, Yukari continued her original assignment aboard the vessel with a small modification – she was placed as executive officer.

That didn't last long, as Ketsurui Hanako returned to duty. Yukari was thrust into the position of communication officer and starship operator, which she did happily. She helped guide the Sakura through several battles against opponents such as Mishhu gunships, a Black Spiral stealth destroyer, and plenty of power armors. She even flew against a moon.

After the mission was finished, she left the Sakura with Taii Ketsurui Kotori to join her aboard an experimental cruiser, the YSS Miharu. She was given an administrative demotion to Chui (her original rank of Taii was restored when Kotori was promoted) but made executive officer of the vessel. She also took some power armor training on the base.

But then, she became a Nekovalkyrja again. Aboard the Miharu, Yukari was witness and participant in the destruction of Taiie and the near demise of the 5th Expeditionary Fleet. What happened from there, however, was a whirlwind of flying the Miharu through attacks by Mishhu scoutships; deploying special probes via power armor; killing a Ghost Mishhu while inside that armor, saving Yukisato Mizuho and Kotori; making a certain kind of love to her lover Tom; then taking the Miharu against a Black Spiral Nozomi-class scoutship, the Meng Po, and assisting in its capture (in part by killing a power armor's pilot with graviton beams).

After Miharu Mission 1, Yukari was demoted again, this time to Ittô Juni, for her failure to adequetely believe in her leadership abilities. This both hurt her and pleased her, but she … argued the point, during a meeting with Kotori, Kurohoshi Masako and Nyton Claymere. The meeting was intense at that point, but Kotori reversed her decision and promoted Yukari to Shosa.

Mission 5 brought more change than anyone had expected.

It began with arriving at Amaya's Gate. Confronting Eve's ship, the Dominion, as well as its five Sakura-class gunships was the first task. It was a pitched battle, involving subterfuge she did not even know about, the NH-23 Kotori being captured, and ultimately slaying Amaya's entire armada. NH-23 Kotori died in the fighting, but not before confessing things to her.

It took time to recover, but they were then ready to make the push to assault Amaya's Gate. That battle required everything they had and more, and yet at the end, there still was Melisson.

After killing Eve and her minions, the crew plunged into the timeless expanse that held the Second Draconian Fleet captive, chasing down Melisson's flagship and crashing Miharu into it in order to make the final assault. Yukari led the team, which lost Ichigo but gained Nimura, and showed her mettle at being a firm leader, but only after she survived Melisson's mental manipulations. It was during that time Yukari accepted her role as Goddess of the Lost.

Once Melisson was down and captured, it was time to face the Infection Queen herself. Before that, Yukari came across valuable intelligence about Eve and Melisson. Mefpralphra was a nearly indomitable opponent using alien technology. She almost killed them several times, but the team succeeded, killing Mefpralphra. The flagship was set to explode, and to let the team escape, Miharu avatar Mara sacrificed her life to allow Hoshi to escape and free a portion of the fleet.

The aftermath: 3,174 vessels were saved from a fleet of millions, but they were safe. The lost fleet's members, including a Chujo Kasami Erika, belonged to Kotori. The next move embroiled the Miharu crew into a debate — how to utilize the fleet and free its crew without putting themselves in the crosshairs of SAINT.

After several days, Kotori decided on a bold plan. They would bring the fleet to Nataria and smash the NMX garrison there, retaking the planet for Yamatai before offering the fleet to Taisho Yui. The plan, drawn up in part by Yukari, worked, with fewer than 100 losses. However, Yui had used the Nataria incident as a trap for the NMX to draw them to a seemingly underdefended Yamatai. Yui's gamble was made only stronger by the addition of the Second Draconian Fleet.

Yukari took operational command of the fleet, with Kotori as its true leader, and plunged into the Battle for Yamatai. Success was had, at the cost of hundreds of vessels, some after they committed to suicide attacks against the enemy. More than 2 million lives on the surface of Yamatai, but Yukari's fleet-wide use of graviton beams to slow down a suiciding enemy vessel saved millions more. None of it could have been possible without the crew of the Miharu attacking the NMX's flagship.

Awards were dispersed, and the Miharu crew officially disbanded. Yukari was drafted into SAINT, but her position was one mostly of convenience — they needed someone who still could get information out of Melisson and, perhaps, find Kotori. It also was a matter of keeping a potential enemy as close as possible. SAINT doesn't trust her.

Melisson had little desirable information, and Yukari put in for leave to get married.

However, the wedding was short-lived. Nagase Nagako, testing Yukari for the mission she wanted to send the Neko on, manipulated several Ralteans into attacking Yukari, Tom and others at Miharu House. She was successful in ruining the wedding before it went off, and also got Yukari to take on the mission she wanted.

Yukari's theme song is "Rise". Sung by Origa and written/produced by Yoko Kanno, it is the opening theme to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG.

• Communication: Yukari is familiar with basic radio operation and procedures and can make transmissions to and receive transmissions from other characters through headsets, starships, power armor, and shuttles in both combat and non-combat conditions. She is fluent in Nepleslian with a minimal accent and Yamataian. She can speak and write both correctly and efficiently and can write reports, fill forms, issue orders under fire, etc. She also can speak telepathically. She has served often as a communication officer.
• Combat: Yukari received hand-to-hand combat training, followed up with a rigorous training program. She is skilled and experienced in combat in Yamatai-like conditions and in zero-gravity, with and without weapons. Weapons she has trained with include energy pistols, knives and power armor.
  • Pistoleer: Yukari seems to have a natural gift with the older cartridge-based pistols. She is a capable shooter with energy pistols.
    
  • Sharpshooting: A specialty of hers, Yukari has proven to be a highly capable sharpshooter when utilizing the LASR Mk. II. She is above average with smaller, handheld cartridge rifles.
    
  • Grenadier: Yukari is proficient with handheld grenades, but is capable with rifle grenades.
• Information Technology: Yukari is above average of operating any computer system that uses the Kessaku OS, which is found on all Star Army starships. She is proficient in entering and/or searching for information. She used to be more proficient due to her training an intelligence officer, but has strayed from its formal application.
  • Projection: Yukari has a talent for engaging the Kessaku OS outside of formal searches. She uses this talent to visually engage with Kessaku OS-loaded hardware and further increase her speed in processing data.
• Mathematics: Yukari received basic mathematics training, to including up to algebra and trigonometry. She is also well versed in the areas of math needed to navigate a starship, though she usually bypassed such formalities when she was a transport pilot.
• Knowledge (History): Yukari extensively studied not only the history of Yamatai, but that of Nepleslia. She also has studied seafairing.
• Entertainment (Singing, instruments): Yukari doesn't mention it, but she's a good singer. Her treks through ancient Nepleslian history taught her about certain genres of music the colonists brought with them. She also plays the kôtô fairly well, though she enjoys her keyboard.
• Starship Operations (Helm; Navigation): Yukari is trained in stellar cartography, navigation and especially piloting. She is an exceptional pilot.
• Command: With the combined experiences of the Iori, her work as executive/communication officer aboard the Sakura and the Miharu, Yukari has grown to be a fierce leader. Yukari grew into the role out of necessity and the desire to protect. She now has firm command of the skill.

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