From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Hanako- Kami, art by vividanima.deviantart.com
Hanako-Kami
Player: @ Maemir Firehand
Origin:	Magic
Archetype:	Defender
Security Level:	Confidential
Personal Data
Real Name:	Hanako Yusimura
Known Aliases:	None
Species:	Ghost
Age:	16 when killed
Height:	Confidential
Weight:	Confidential
Eye Color:	Confidential
Hair Color:	Confidential
Biographical Data
Nationality:	Japanese
Occupation:	Confidential
Place of Birth:	Confidential
Base of Operations:	Confidential
Marital Status:	Confidential
Known Relatives:	Confidential
Known Powers
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Known Abilities
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Equipment
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Hanako was an exchange student from Osaka, come to Paragon City as part of the international exchange program attending Steel Canyon High School. She was murdered by Tsoo for her blood to be used in one of their rituals. (She was an entirely random victim, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) Due to the circumstances of her death, she was condemned to remain on earth as a Yuurei. But although while in this cursed state she can exact a terrifying vengeance on her killers, she suffered significant memory loss – and doesn’t know who they were. Following her murder she disappeared for three months but has since returned to Steel Canyon.

Her case is known to MAGI, but aside from a passing notice in the newspapers as another murder in the city, little notice was publicly made of her case. However, anyone delving into police records or using MAGI contacts can obtain details easily.

While her abilities are magical in nature, she is not herself a magic user, or caster in any form. She has no more than a passing knowledge of magic and metasciences, although she does have extensive experience with other ghosts and such creatures of the Japanese mythologies such as kappa, bakemono and such (but these are rare in America) as well as the usual Japanese creatures typical of her culture. She is a follower of Shinto. She is also familiar with most of the local spooks, ghosts and other denizens of the ghostly world, if for no other reason than that she often winds up interacting with them periodically.

Known to MAGI, her case was such that she was counselled for two more months by MAGI, who established and helped her ability to interact on the material plane.

But the state she is in is not one of her making, or her choice – all she really wants is to be a simple schoolgirl, as before. It is this juxtaposition of states that informs the characters dynamic – for while she is a yuurei, driven by vengeance on evil doers she is also a generally chipper, typically teenaged Japanese girl, just as caught up in the latest fashions, adores kawaii cellpohone bangles and is a huge anime fan. Her ghostly state she regards an embarrassment, and really something she’s just as soon not contend with treating more as a disability than a real issue.

This is also explored in her own horrified exploration of her own state – she kills, (dark forces do drain life, unabashedly) but never without cause and, oddly, never any innocent. Her powers are driven by karmic balance, she in fact cannot affect anyone unless they are karmically irredeemably evil. (As reflecting the fact that she cannot target ingame anyone or thing that cons anything other than enemy target – by mechanics, I interpret this to be the karmic balance. Also, even some villains she cannot effect – as they are achieving a new balance of morality as they realign their condition.) So, while she is a ferocious creature in battle, she’s neither aggressive nor especially emo (aside from a certain mercurial nature) and is otherwise, basically, a rather bookish girl who happens to be a ghost.

Hana’s condition is a miserable one, as she is effectively in a horrific state of sensory deprivation. She cannot feel, smell, or touch. While she can see and hear, how she senses these inputs is not well understood. MAGI likens it to the state of the more common western ghosts, who seem to sense their surroundings in some odd fashion. She is certainly aware, and can communicate, her voice a dry whispery voice that’s recognizably that of a young girl, but with an odd dissonance produced by the dry vocal chords.

When she manifests in her corporeal state, her body is subject to decomposition, and as such is usually in vary degrees of putrefaction. It can appear in a number of ways, ranging from that of a relatively fresh corpse when she has recently fed to that of a dank, rotting cadaver in advanced decay. In the latter stages she will exude a horrible, gut wrenching odor as well as display flies, maggots in her hair and wounds, and leak fluids from her eyes.

She can only interact with the physical world in her corporeal state, when she can handle objects or physically affect her environment. In her translucent ghost form, she can been seen ( if dimly) and can speak and communicate, but little else. She can also remain invisible ( her usal state of being ) but remaining incorporeal takes considerable effort, requiring more energy than her corporeal state. It’s a terrible factor of her curse that she’s aware of the effect her corporeal forms have, and she tries to avoid this when she can by remaining incorporeal as long as she can, driving her to inevitably feed as she tires in an ongoing vicious circle. In this state she can be detected while translucent or invisible by several factors – she exudes an aura of unease, for one, and also for an area some ten feet around her she creates a “cold zone” where the area will drop almost 30 degrees in temperature. There is also readily detectable a faint scent of jasmine and old, spoiled meat.

She does not feel pain, nor does she sense cold or heat. However, she does suffer the pangs of thirst and starvation, to such a degree as to equate starvation. This only abates when she feeds, and then at best temporarily. When she feeds she will also restore her body to its original state, insofar as that state is of a newly deceased corpse. This never lasts, however, and at some point she must feed again.

Her corporeal body will suffer any wounds it receives, and it’s not unusual to encounter her in her corporeal sate sporting wounds to the head, having had half her head blown away or holes and embedded objects in her body. ( at one point she had a length of pointed rebar – a common Freakshow weapon – piercing her for several weeks until a hero tugged it from her, as she was unable to dislodge it on her own)

Ghost Forms

Hanako has at times manifested in a variety of different forms, at least three so far, perhaps more.

The Child

Standing ( or floating) she will appear as petite six year old girl, in a decrepit school uniform typical of the Japanese elementary school student. She also wears a Hello Kitty bookpack and clutches a stuffed pink teddy bear. She is, when corporeal, in an advanced state of decay, and looks it, her face and flesh withered or half rotted. When corporeal, she is in full bloom of decomposition, to include the overwhelming odor of rotting flesh. When in ghost form, the only scent is that of jasmine and a faint breath of corruption. She also exhibits a cold presence for about a three-meter radius when she's around, usually dropping the temp in her immediate area by fifty degrees. A close observer will note that her feet actually never touch the ground.She will frequently be translucent to the eye, or corporeal when feeding.

Its been speculated this is Hana reliving her childhood memory, but why she appears in this form is unclear. MAGI has supposed that its an attempt to lure victims or reassure her general acquaintances, but her true motivation for doing so is unknown.

The Girl

In this form she has appeared in varying outfits, most frequently either wearing a school uniform or street clothes. She appears as a petite Japanese girl , and aside from her pale condition and dry milky grey eye may easily pass as a girl favoring a goth look. Closer examination will reveal she is in fact dead, but only newly so, and could be described as no worse to look upon than a newly embalmed corpse. She will either be incorporeal, or smokily translucent or less often corporeal and solid. In either state there is a faint smell of jasmine and corruption and the usual "cold zone" around her .

The Corpse

In this form Hanako will appear as she does as the Girl, but in a highly advanced state of decay. Her face will be rotted, eyes leaking vile fluids and often is both aromatic in the extreme and surrounded by a cloud of blowflies. Her hair will be disheveled, and her flesh pale and in many places shedding from her bones. She will seem to float or hover, and may be translucent as smoke, but in this form she is most often corporeal. Her eyes, usually milky white will glow from within, and she will leave trails of dropping maggots and graveyard bugs as she walks.Her clothing will be stiff and foul and she displays any wounds she's collected since her last feeding.