Suzuya; Shirone

Name: Suzuya; Shirone

Gender: Female

Age: 54

Year in school: College Freshman

Mastery: Guardian

Dorm: Orchid

Height: 5'1"

---

[Human Form]
Shirone's human body is as tiny, in comparison, as her feline counterpart. With ice-blue eyes and the same pure white softness for her hair, she keeps the theme in her choice of clothing, opting for white and bright colors very often, sprinkling the one or other accent of black or blue in between to make the picture round. She is also a big fan of zipper hoodies.

[Spirit Form]
As depicted below, Shirone in her Spirit Form, keeps the clothing style she is so fond of. Her hair gains a degree of fluff. She grows cat-ears and a tail, her eyes take a mesmerizing in-between of the blue they show in her other forms, while changing shape to the slitted pupils of a cat as they are surrounded by a hue that mimics eye coloration. This is especially impressive when looking at them in the dark. Her canines will grow into tiny fangs and while she does not sprout claws, her nails become extendable razorblades. Only in this form will she find a subtle amusement in occasionally attaching a small bell, hung from a red string, to her tail.

[Original Form]
Shirone's original form lacks in physical dimension. While she is still young, compared to her kin's lifespan, she simply didn't grow as much as others her species would usually have by now, keeping her stuck at the size of a regular cat. With a fluffy, pure white fur and almost unsettlingly crystal-clear, blue eyes which seem to shimmer even in full sunshine, she makes for what many would call an incredibly pretty member of the feline kind.




The first and foremost thing to be said about Shirone is that she is very much herself. Meaning that she presents many characterisms of a cat. Curious to a fault at times, she always has her own mind on things. Typically shy, once she warms up to someone, or has a good feeling about someone, she'll open up and show some of her cheerful side, even if it's well hidden. With an odd sort of humor and a general lack of expressions, her jokes often miss their mark, leaving her confused. While she may seem generally without care for most things and can often be found napping in random places, if something or someone she holds close needs her help, she'll be there. And she is protective to a fault about the few that she cherishes.

In recent years, she has been even more dis-social than ever, rooted in the events that led her to leave the shrine she spent most of her life at. She still struggles with social norms and thus seeks seclusion. Making contact with her, engaging her in any kind of conversation or activity is nothing short of difficult at best, unless her eccentric mind finds some sort of interest.

---

The Past.

The light of a full summer moon broke through the thick of Shadowglenn's lush crowns, impaling the ground like magic lances that pierced the darkness surrounding a secluded, ancient shrine. The red lacquered wooden beams, forming the majority of structures, were well-maintained and their color shone through the darkness as if they declared the temple grounds to be an entirely different world. Soaked with age, the giant gate they formed, demanded the respect of anyone that could lay eyes upon it, as if to tell them that other laws governed here. Even nature seemed to heed it's demand, an almost unnatural silence surrounding the building, even though there was a fresh wind blowing, granting those who resided within the temple a night of sound sleep as if they were being rewarded for upholding the temple for generations now. Not one soul was to be seen on the stone path leading up to the main building's entrance or anywhere else in the outskirts of the mystic place.



And then, nature reared it's head. Suddenly, the temple's massive gong rung out once, as if a giant had struck it and as the reverberations faded out, a sudden gust of wind blew leaves into the temple's yard, letting them dance in a spiral. The creaking of massive, antique trees rumbled through the woods and even the moonlight took on an intensity that threatened to blind any onlooker. Within seconds lights flared up within the temple, and loud clamoring arose as the several dozen priests and priestesses, along with a handful of faithful travelers climbed out of their bedding and stormed outside only to stare in disbelief as they witnessed the impossible storm of leaves in front of them.

As if nature had noticed that it had been caught red-handed, the woods suddenly returned to their silence, the moonlight faded and the leaves blew away like they were supposed to. Everything returned to normal. Nothing had changed. Relieved sighs went through the crowd and albeit a general anxiety could be felt among them, most were already on their way back to their quarters when the head priestess gasped and pointed to a patch of moonlight on the stonen path that no mortal was supposed to tread. Sitting there and silently staring was the whitest of kittens. Illuminated by the light, it seemed to shine, the only color being the glowing blue orbs of it's eyes, fixed on the crowd. Without waiting long, the tiny animal came closer, not in any rush at all until it reached the top of a small flight of stonen steps, where it sat and simply continued to stare.

The crowd froze as it's gazes fell upon the tiny creature. Quiet murmurs began to rise among them, but before long the older lady which had gasped before raised a silent hand and the murmurs died down immediately. Clearly this woman had absolute authority here. And yet, even she had an unsure expression on her face as she took careful steps toward the new arrival. Had it not been for the circumstances, there wouldn't have been any concern, but given the nature of the place and it's residents, everyone was aware that the kitten was no average creature. The old priestess had made it only half of the way when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

All around the shrine, the forage began rustling and countless forest animals strolled out, situating themselves at the edges of the temple grounds, eyes fixed on the tiny white. A close observer among the travelers would later detail in his journal that all of them were a kind of feline. Not one of them came closer than that, yet it was enough to get the residents even more anxious. Even the head priestess stood still in middle between the group and the kitten.

---

At that moment, the kitten's mind had finally come to a rest after it's sudden awakening. She had finally understood everything about herself, yet she had no idea of the crowd in front of her. Curious as she was, she wanted to show who she was, learn who was before her. But first, as her instincts dictated, came her duty. Aware of the shrine's energy and aware to the many, many spirits that gathered here, the peaceful presence of her protectees all around the temple grounds, she quickly came to the conclusion that even if she didn't know where she was, or who the people before her were, this place was where she would be fulfilling her duty. Settled on that matter, the tiny kitten stood and turned on her 'heels' facing the giant gate that governed the place. Of course. This was the gate she had passed through in the moment she started her existence.

Without a second thought, she gathered her energy. Her snow-white fur began shining like the moon, her blue eyes glowed with the mystic powers that gathered around her. Fearful murmurs once again rose from the group, as they studied the mystic arts for their entire lives, they clearly noticed. The tiny kitten proceeded to let out a single meow, ringing out clear like a bell and unnaturally loud. She called out to the resident spirits this way and together with her own energy, they began to move and gather around the gate. A soft glow, red as it's lacquered wood, engulfed the wooden frame for several moments before it faded along with the kitten's fur. At this point, all the surroundings forest felines lowered their head to the tiny kitten before they left the visible surroundings.

This finally convinced the elderly woman. Whomever she had in front of her, it was most certainly a benevolent being. With her mind put to ease, she closed the distance to the kitten, who turned around to face her again. Two steps still seperating them, the old priestess bowed respectfully before addressing her. "Welcome. You're here to protect us, aren't you?", she spoke mildly and a smile crossed her lips as the kitten simply answered with an approving meow, before settling into a tiny spurt that brought her right through the group of people, all of which immediately cleared a path and right into the main temple's door, into which she disappeared. The entire crowd followed her only seconds later, but the mysterious kitten was nowhere to be seen. The young ones were already beginning to call out for her, when the head priestess entered after the group and lifted her hand again to demand silence. "Let us leave her alone while she settles in, why don't we? We can be truly happy to have been blessed like this. Now, back to bed with all of you, tomorow will be as busy as always." With this, she ushered the crowd out and was the last to leave the seemingly empty shrine, not without looking back as she closed the doors, only to spot the kitten peering at her from behind the altar's corner. "Curious, aren't you?", she chuckled and went to pass the altar, vanishing into a small reading room behind it, filled with manuscripts.

Pondering her choices, the kitten finally decided to follow after the woman after a few minutes, to find her looking through the shelves. Seating herself on the small reading table, the kittens eyes followed the elder woman as she came back with multiple old scrolls and made space as she dropped them on the table and sat down. "Now, let's find out who you are.", the old woman mused and began to read, a silently observing kitten right next to her for the entire night.

---

For the weeks to come, this procedure repeated. During the day, the white kitten secretly strolled the premises, curiously spying on the unaware residents and was only ever spotted for the tiniest moments. At night however, she would wait inside the reading room until the head priestess came to study the old manuscripts in her search for the kitten's identity. During this time, the kitten came to understand the language that was used and soon began to read along, learning about lore, history and a number of creatures, but none described herself. This also occured to the head priestess, who grew ever more confused as her search continued. Never had she met a creature that was not listed in the scriptures.

Until one certain day, one of the scrolls detailed multiple cat demons. Taken aback, the woman stepped away from the table, disbelief in her eyes as she gazed at the kitten on her table. Not understanding, the kitten let out a single mew, causing the priestess to bolt out of the room. Confused, she was left alone. Until she read the document and found what had the woman so scared. But she wasn't one of them. This was wrong, she was no demon. She would never dare touch human flesh. Intending to explain, she decided to take a different form the next time the priestess came to read. One that allowed her to speak the same tongue. Yet, she waited without the woman returning. One night. Two nights. A week.

Word that she was a disguised demon spread around the temple, and every time she was spotted, the residents fled immediately. Not knowing what she could do, the cat finally decided to show them the truth. But how? And the answer came to her right away. The scrolls. One of them had to depict her true nature. And thus, she spent weeks, every night, searching through the documents as the priestess had, all while the fear of her existence grew among the residents, even if she never appeared before them now.

Everyone's fear reached the pinnacle the same night that the kitten found what she had been looking for. Just as she was on her way to find and fetch the head priestess, she ran into a crowd of over twenty young priests and priestesses, led by three or four of the older ones. They all were holding spiritual items used to exorcize demons. Quickly surrounded, she had no way out. Unsure of what would happen to her as the circle closed around her, she was prepared to defend herself until the clear and loud voice of the head priestess resounded. "What is happening here!?", she demanded to know and burst through the encirclement to find the tiny kitten in the middle. "No one move!", she demanded, before facing the tiny one directly. "Demon.. why have you come here?", she asked of the kitten, who promptly let out a mewl of disagreement, only to quickly realize that she woudln't be understood this way.

Scared as she was, the tiny one ran back into the temple, causing an uproar among the gathered mob. They all tried to rush in after her, only to be stopped at the entrance by the head priestess, who demanded that she would take care of the matter. Just as the kitten returned, dragging a single scroll along with her. She dropped the item before the woman and then scampered off into the reading room. If they wouldn't understand, she would have no choice but to leave. After an agonizing time that felt like forever, the head priestess entered. In her hand was the unrolled scroll, in her eyes the expression of guilt and apology. "I never would have thought. I remember reading about your kind long ago now.. I'm ashamed to have forgotten. Forgive me."

The kitten was about to give a meow once more, but reminded herself that her unwillingness to leave this form had led to this misunderstanding in the first place. Hesitating a second, she hid behind the shelves and finally acquired her human form for the first time ever, mimicking the priestess's clothes in the process, as to not put her off by appearing nude. A moment later, the tiny girl left the shadows again with an apologetic smile. "If only I hadn't hidden for so long. There's nothing to be forgiven. I realize that my kind is rarely ever seen... so we're easily mistaken for our 'cousins', you could say.." And with a second's pause, she recalled a crucial fact. "While I am at it... my name.. is Shirone-"

They were interrupted by loud clamor outside, fearful screams and a moment later, monstrous growling. Not wasting a moment, they both ran outside and sure enough, they found a massive monster approaching from the forest. As Shirone knew, the temple had dealt with monsters before, but this one was way beyond what they knew. Twice the size of a building, a massive chimera was making it's hungry way toward the temple. The residents were already running around in a panic, gathering belongings and making to evacuate. Within a moment, the head priestess had begun to coordinate them, taking a moment of her precious time to face the dumbfounded Shirone. "Run!", was all she said. That was when the newborn Nekogami began to realize that the home she had just found for herself was about to be destroyed along with the people living in it.

Her instincts kicked in, like when she blessed the temple grounds months ago. In an instant, her body changed form and she could feel the spiritual powers inside her reaching their maximum, as her ears stood on end. "Not until you all are safe!", she retorted and ran off. Toward the monster, her shrine maiden's clothes fluttering as she did. The head priestess only realized what she was doing once Shirone was already on her way and couldn't do anything to stop her.

Just moments later, the young Nekogami stood directly in the monster's path. And was noticed immediately. With terrifying growls and screams, the beast set it's sights on her, speeding it's march to get rid of her first. Of course, Shirone was afraid. Scared right to the bones, but she planted her feet. Recalling what she had done to the massive temple gate, she finally figured out what that had been good for. Her slitted eyes suddenly lit up as she slammed her hands together and drew upon her powers. The blessed gate immediately began resonating with her and the red glow it had shown months ago flared up, causing the panicked priests to stop in their tracks and first stare at it, then toward the direction of the monster, where they saw the Nekogami unleashing the same kind of power they had seen of the kitten before. This time, however, it didn't stop there. The glow intensified until the gate shone brightly while the chimera came closer and closer until, without further notice, a massive, translucent, spherical wall broke forth from the gate and rapidly expanded to enclose the entire temple grounds. Only for the massive beast charging at Shirone to crash into it at full speed, coming to a stop right there, letting out deafening screeches of pain.

Noticing the monstrosity's confusion, the priests finally reacted and teamed up, using whatever mystic secrets they had available to get rid of it, while the spiritual wall kept it at bay. After more than an hour of bombardement the beast finally took it's last. At the same moment, the wall receded and both gate and Nekogami returned to normal. For Shirone, this meant kitten form. Since that day, life at the temple had returned to normal. Although the fact that the priests now directed their prayers toward Shirone meant that she intentionally made herself scarce, she never left. And she cultivated multiple friendships, especially with the head priestess and her later successor.

Over the next decades, the temple prospered. It faced multiple similar threats and all of them were dealt with by Shirone, as she cared for the people and animals of the forest. She would never leave this home of hers, was what she decided upon. And albeit only the residents knew the truth of her existence, the stories made their rounds and more visitors than ever came to the temple, securing its upholding for decades.

---

Fifty Years Later - The Recent.

Over five decades, life at the shrine had been quiet. The regular stream of visitors. New priests and priestesses and the passing of old friends. The occasional monster attack and them being repelled. A nigh-catastrophe like the massive chimera never happened again. And while the place remained mostly unchanged, the age of the residents certainly did. Unlike Shirone, they aged so very fast. It certainly put a distance between her and most of them, though she always had multiple close friends among the short-lived humans. For some reason, other species only ever came as visitors and even then, were a rare sight around the shrine.

Even more so, since for the last ten years, the shrine had attracted continually less visitors. As result, there were less priests as well and the first small buildings as well as one of the small living quarter buildings had already been put out of use. It was saddening to see her home shrink like this, but there was little the Nekogami could do. Except protect the place.
Little did she know that the temple's financial situation was already very dire. Having lived as a disconnected entity the whole time, Shirone barely knew what money was. As a result, the buildings had begun showing signs of disrepair and were degrading with each passing year. Finally, the time came when some of the younger priests began wandering off to live elsewhere. And her home shrunk further.

Still, the Nekogami never shirked on her duties. Never did she believe her home would disappear. Not even on the day everything came to an end.

It was late at night and everything seemed peaceful. No sign of trouble as most nights. Or so she thought until her senses picked up how the spirits around the temple panicked. The entire atmosphere of the place changed in an instant and the Nekogami ran outside to investigate just in time to witness one.. then two.. then three lesser monsters break through the forage. And she could sense dozens more behind them. In a hurry, Shirone made for the gong, managing to strike it once with some effort, before she threw the shrine's barrier up, the monsters outside relentlessly attempting to get in.

In a hurry, everyone that had woken up came running outside to witness how their protector was once again forced to keep their attackers at bay. But this time, there was something different. Something was decidedly wrong. Shirone's strength was sapping away like crazy. If this went on.. "I can't hold them off!", she cried out, finally rattling the sleepy residents awake. They had gotten too used to her protection. They weren't prepared for a fight. Knowing this, the few remaining older priests decided. To let the youngsters and guests escape, while they bought time. 5 in total. Five old priests and Shirone, whose power was about to run out were ready to face the horde outside the barrier, while all the others grabbed their belongings and ran. Ran down the visitor path, toward the cities. Somewhere that Shirone only knew from stories and pictures.

Just as most had left the temple grounds, Shirone's barrier broke, something that had never happened before and she sunk to her knees in exhaustion as the horde stormed in and the priests did their best to fend them off, so they wouldn't go after the escapees, which were still far too close for comfort. Forcing herself up, the Nekogami fought. Like never before. Near the end of everything, she spotted the source of all this, an odd abomination of monster that gave her the creeps. That was definetily the source of her bad feeling and as it turned out a tough foe. Eventually, she landed a lucky hit and the thing died, much to her relief.

However, as she turned to look after her companions... she froze and bit her lip, silent tears dropping down her cheeks. Quiet like this, she brought the five of them to rest, gave them their last rites and blessings as she did and then began to fix what damage to the temple that she could. All while awaiting everyone's return.

A day passed. No one came. Maybe they wanted to stick it out a bit longer?

A week. She began to wonder what took them, but didn't pay it much mind.

A month. At this point, she already knew. But didn't want to accept it.

A year. Finally, the woods had begun to reclaim the temple and Shirone was no longer able to maintain the buildings. Bitter and saddened, she finally accepted that she had been left behind. Likely taken for dead. She gathered what she could and with a final farewell, and the promise to return one day, she made down the path as well. Off into the unknown cities. Not knowing what she would find there.

The first thing she learned was that her clothes attracted too much attention. And she couldn't carry her luggage as cat. Thus, she got some clothes at the first oppurtunity, without paying much heed to what it was. This would later form her habit of wearing hoodies. At the time, however, she didn't care much for anything. She wandered without destination, finally coming to a rest in a port town. It was there that she learned of a place that took in any and all beings of all species. Some kind of school. In her search for a home, anything was fine, so this sounded like the best idea she would have for a while.

Stowing away on a cargo ship, she made her trip to the capital. And after an odyssey through the megapolis that this city was, she arrived at Eldritch Academy. Enrolled in the upper highschool years, she had little trouble comprehending the material. The social norms were her biggest problem. And even today, as she has entered college, that remains her biggest issue, making her quite the loner, not having had any meaningful contact with others during the time she spent at the school. But, at the very least it's a place she can call home for now.

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• Shift || Nekogami can choose to freely shift between their three forms.
• Nekogami Senses || Not only do they posess the enhanced senses of a cat, but Nekogami can also sense the presence of any feline in their surroundings, as well as perceive the spiritual side of things.
• Spirit Magic || As incredibly potent spirit users, Nekogami are especially in tune with the divine and light, yet can access a great deal of spells with ease. Raises Strength by 2.
• Divine Spirit || As the powerful spirits they are, Nekogami have naturally high energy reserves. Raises Stamina by 1.
• Karma || Nekogami have the innate ability to bless or curse others. Most effective on felines. A Nekogami's blessing brings not only luck, but also cures wounds and protects from harm to a degree. Their curses attract danger and bring bad luck.
• Immortal || Nekogami are effectively immortal. While they can be killed, they won't die on their own. Along with this comes an incredibly slow aging process, which only applies to their Original Form and the elements it carries over into Spirit Form. Their human aspects are set at the moment they manifest and will not change or age. It takes about a century for their Original Forms to reach adulthood, after which they will stop growing and only their markings will continue to expand, continously slowing down until they stop at an age of about fivehundred.



• Feline Attraction || All felines, sentient or not, are naturally aware of a Nekogami's presence. Unintelligent felines will be drawn toward them, making them incredibly easy to locate.
• Guardian Deity || Due to their nature as protectors, Nekogami will hear the prayers directed toward them. Even if they can tune them out somewhat, there is no escaping this. They will also feel compelled to fulfill their duty and answer these prayers. Ignoring their duty will render the Nekogami weak, sick and unable to tune out the prayers until they resume doing their job.
• Summonable || Albeit by far not an easy process, Nekogami can be summoned. If successfully contracted, the Nekogami will feel nigh irresistibly compelled to follow their summoner's orders. OOC Permission required.