Maika Nagumo
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Society and civilization claims peace, attempting to hide their greed. Corporations are full of lies and illusion. Police are corrupt. Even the dumb bimbos I party with are as fake as their breast implants. In this world of lies, deceit, and illusion, my powers blend right in. So come and catch me if you can, but don't expect the path to be as straight as you think it is."
- Maika Nagumo to the Realmwatch Collective
Maika Nagumo was a Contingency Initiative Operative serving under Elimination Squad Four for Matthew "The Mirage" Lam. Her codename was The Refractor prior to her death to The Transplant. Maika was the first member to join Squad Four after Matt, making her his first subordinate, and the member who had known him the longest out of everyone in the Elimination Squad.
Possessing incredible mastery over her ability to distort space around her body, Maika was commonly referred to as Squad Four's Illusionist. Adding onto her power of illusion, Maika possesses incredible mastery over the katana, frequently combining her skills as a former kunoichi assassin to her evo to be one of the most cunning hand to hand fighters, falling only slightly short to Mirage's Senkaku Style.
Contents
Biography
"I know about your past. You were a kunoichi in Fukuoka trying to pay your younger sister's debt. You were married to a man called Ito Kintaro who you trusted for eight years, until he betrayed both you and your sister and had her killed for spare change. And now you can't trust men ever again. It's a sad story, but if you joined my Squad hoping for something different, then you're sorely mistaken. Stop waiting for your Prince Charming to enter your life and hoping it would turn around miraculously. If you want things to change it's up to you to change it. Not others. And certainly not me."
- Matthew Lam to Maika Nagumo
Early Years
Not much of Maika's childhood is known, aside from the fact that Maika spent a majority of her early years living in a residence along with her younger sister. Because of the absence of their parents, who were out of country, Maika acted as a maternal figure to her younger sister, carrying the burden of taking care of the household. Due to the lack of parental figures, Maika's younger sister, aged 13, despised Maika's stern personality, claiming she, aged 14, was not her mother, and often left the house and partake in rebellious activities. On one fateful night, Maika and her sister entered a heated argument, where the younger sister claimed that she wished their parents had died and never given birth to the two girls, so that she wouldn't have to live with such a strict sister. Enraged, Maika slapped her sister, causing her to run out of the house and not return for three days.
Terrified and worried, Maika chased after her sister, and discovered that her sister had gotten involved with a criminal organization disguised as a street gang, where she had been drugged with an illegal compound known as Kira by her boyfriend. Maika's sister, frantic and desperate, begged her older sister to save her. In a desperate attempt to save her sister, Maika was offered a deal to save her sister's life; work as a kunoichi for the organization and earn enough money to pay off the debt her sister had accumulated.
Nagumo agreed, and joined the underground assassin organization Scarlet Rose at the age of 14, working as a kunoichi and partaking in numerous assassinations to pay off her younger sister's debt. The job was both gruesome and taxing, as Maika was forced to endure the violence of not just killing her victims, but manipulating and seducing them despite being only a teenager.
Maika would secretly work as a kunoichi throughout her school years, balancing her assassin life with her school life. Throughout middle school, Maika dated Ito Kintaro, the son of a wealthy merchant who became attracted to her after witnessing Maika outperform the upper years during a sports festival due to her heightened physical conditioning as a kunoichi.
The Return of Scarlet Rose
After graduation, Maika married Kintaro as well as finally clearing her younger sister's debt. Earning enough money for a plane ticket, Maika, now aged 18 flew her younger sister back to their parents, and lived a peaceful life free from assassination with her husband.
During one night, Maika and her husband attempted to conceive, but Kintaro discovered that Maika had lied about being a virgin. Enraged, Kintaro demanded why Maika had not disclosed any of her past relationships with him, and Maika, attempting to hide her past pleasuring assassination targets as a kunoichi, lied that she had several lovers before Kintaro, greatly straining the relationship. Despite this, Kintaro proceeded reluctantly, and Maika became pregnant with Kintaro's child.
A few weeks later, while Kintaro was away, Maika received a distressing call from her sister, who claimed that several "shadowy figures" were after her. Maika's sister had revealed Maika's past with Scarlet Rose to their parents, who flew back to Fukuoka and retrieve Maika and flee. Maika, in a panic, rushed to the airport to find her family, but was too late, as by the time she reached the airport, the entire building was in flames. Pushing through the hordes of evacuating travellers, Maika found her sister alive, but to her horror, the burnt bodies of her parents by her sister's side. Grabbing her sister, Maika began to flee the airport, stealing and hijacking several cars with a number of Scarlet Rose assassins pursuing the sisters.
While in hiding, Maika berated her sister, demanding why she had revealed something so important to her parents without even thinking about the consequences. Maika's sister, in a frenzy, screamed at her sister, telling her it was all her fault for being so strict when they had lived together, and that if Maika had only been less strict, she wouldn't have caused her to party so much and leave the home often. Before Maika could retaliate, the sisters were spotted and ambushed by numerous shinobi. Maika attempted to fend them off to allow her sister to escape, but quickly realized her pregnancy had greatly reduced her mobility. Maika and her sister were then saved by Kintaro, who drove the sisters into a faraway town.
Kintaro's Family
Maika, Kintaro, and the younger Nagumo stayed in an abandoned shack for several weeks, where Maika began to develop a fever. Concerned for his baby and wife, Kintaro attempted to treat Maika, but was unsuccessful. Realizing the pain her older sister was going through, the younger sister apologized profusely to Maika for everything she had done, from leaving home, getting involved with the gangs, doing drugs, and going against Maika's ways. Maika forgave her sister, and the two made up. However, Kintaro became distressed, and stepped out of the house for several hours. While alone, Maika and her sister cried for their parents, the grief finally hitting them now that they were free from the Scarlet Rose.
The next morning, Maika awoke to see Kintaro sitting across from her. Maika's sister was nowhere to be found, but Kintaro ensured her that she was safe. Maika, sensing something was off, asked Kintaro where he had been during those hours. Kintaro ignored her question and asked her about the Scarlet Rose, which Maika quickly denies. Kintaro continues pushing questions, until finally linking her claims about her previous lovers, her lost virginity, along with her incredible physical prowess to be that akin to a kunoichi. Desperately trying to convince her husband otherwise, Maika was suddenly apprehended by numerous Scarlet Rose shinobi. Kintaro then revealed, to Maika's horror, that the Ito family was responsible for the fabrication and distribution of Kira to the black market. The capitalization of Kira was what made the Ito family so wealthy.
Stricken by disbelief, horror, grief, and rage, Maika violently retaliated, yelling at her husband for deceiving her all this time, but collapsed from a kick to her pregnant belly by Kintaro, who angrily shouted at his wife that she had betrayed his trust first by not telling him of her second life. Maika retorted that doing so would have been impossible as the Scarlet Rose would have hunted him too, but Kintaro replied by saying that the Scarlet Rose belonged to the Ito Family, and that he had suspected her sister ever since saving the two at the airport. Struggling, Maika lost consciousness.
Maika Awakens Her Evo
Maika awakened in a dark cell, where across from her, her sister was bound and gagged. Maika attempted to struggle, when a man entered the cell, who revealed himself to be Kintaro. Enraged, Maika screamed at her husband, but Kintaro replied saying the only reason why she was still alive was because she was the first woman he had intercourse with, meaning she held a special place in his heart. Sickened by Kintaro's depraved mind, Maika vowed the kill her husband and that the child she would give birth to will grow up to never know its father. Greatly offended, Kintaro walked up to her sister and placed a knife against her throat. Maika, realizing the carelessness of her words, hysterically begged her husband to put the blade down, but it was too late, as Kintaro killed her sister before her very eyes. Screaming in grief, Maika struggled in her cell as Kintaro left her alone with the corpse of her sister.
Several hours passed, and Maika was awoken to strong contractions and pain. Realizing her water had broken, Maika entered labor. Throughout the childbirth process, Maika made a choice. If the baby survived, she would escape the cell and raise her child free from hatred and rage. She would give up her life as a kunoichi for good and she would become an ideal mother. If the baby died, she would see it as a sign and would proceed on her path to vengeance.
After a few more hours, Maika gave birth to a stillborn, which caused her to cry in grief. During this time, the Pax Incident occured, causing the energies of the explosion to flood her body giving Maika the ability to generate illusions. Maika discovered this power, upon seemingly holding an infant in her arms, only to realize it was simply an illusion she had created. Escaping the cell, Maika used her powers to deceive and assassinate every single member of the Scarlet Rose in the base, until finally facing off against Kintaro.
