Komugi

Though Komugi has kept, through it all, the innocent and cheerful nature that is hers by birth, she took up the burdens of the household alongside her parents from a tender age, and thus the chances afforded her for learning were few; it was by mere happenstance, in the end, that she came to join the BCRL.

Some years past, acceptance of demihumans within Bonfire Cities had not yet reached the measure it enjoys today, and even in a place as varied in its populace as Ranshin City, a demihuman seeking to make a life for herself faced hardships far beyond those of an ordinary human. For all the years her parents labored over their little tavern, they succeeded only in securing the barest subsistence for their family. In time, their circumstances eased somewhat from what they had known in Komugi's infancy, yet still allowed no room for carelessness.

As a delivery girl, Komugi harbored no lofty ambitions of her own. Then, one day, she chanced to notice that the billboard above an intersection she often passed on her rounds had been replaced by a BCRL recruitment poster, calling for trainee soldiers. Perhaps in consideration of the great number of demihumans who called Ranshin City home, the poster even bore an image of a demihuman clad proudly in the BCRL uniform—the first time Komugi had ever beheld such a sight.

And on the day she raced home at full speed, breathless, to declare to her family that she meant to become a BCRL soldier, it was then, perhaps, that her life began quietly to change.

When they learned that their treasured daughter meant to leave home alone and join the BCRL, Komugi's parents were, at first, resolutely opposed to the notion. No matter how Komugi pleaded her case, citing the terms set out in the recruitment pamphlet or the results of her preliminary physical examination, nothing could set to rest the misgivings of this demihuman couple—and though in the end they chose to honor their daughter's decision, their faces, in the moment of parting, remained clouded with unease. Her mother pressed into her hands a bracelet of blue beads, telling her it was a charm to keep her safe wherever she might wander.

After joining the BCRL, Komugi came to understand that her parents' worry and objections had not, perhaps, been without cause. The standards of training and testing, designed as they were around the physical constitution of human soldiers, did not always suit a demihuman's needs, and even the standard-issue equipment proved ill-fitted to a demihuman's frame. Armor she could not fit into, triggers too stiff for her hands to pull, caps that slid down to cover her whole face the moment she put them on—amid the already grueling training, such small indignities were often enough to leave Komugi in tears.

And yet, life in the BCRL was not without its brighter moments. Little by little, Komugi grew accustomed to the rhythms of BCRL life, and made a few friends along the way; chief among them, of course, was Karen, whom she first came to know while sobbing her heart out in a warehouse near the training grounds.

Upon leaving the training camp, Komugi was not sent directly to any front-line action squad, nor stationed to hold some outpost. After a stretch of anxious waiting, she was informed that she had been assigned as a towing car driver—news that took her entirely by surprise. Though Komugi had indeed, of her own initiative, obtained her towing car license during training, never once had she imagined she would truly be chosen for the role!

To Komugi, this appointment meant recognition, meant approval, and with it, an entirely new realm of responsibility and possibility. Others might well have looked upon the work of a towing car driver as a lesser thing—lacking the glamour of an action squad, or the security of a fixed post—but Komugi found herself overjoyed at the thought that her work would, from that day forward, offer real and tangible help, day after day, to the conductors making their way along the rails. Long before she ever set foot aboard the Eternal, Komugi had already won the goodwill of many among its crew—for a girl so golden-furred, so brimming with spirit, forever appearing like a savior at just the right moment, could hardly fail to endear herself to others.

Even after registering as a proper crew member of the Eternal, Komugi did not set aside her work as a towing car driver. To this day, she remains active in that role... though, every now and then, she finds herself wondering whether it has simply been too long, far too long, since she last went home—long enough that she can still recall the method by which her mother made pickles, yet has quite forgotten the very taste of it.

And so Komugi has begun making plans to return home on her next leave. She has already worked out, in her mind, the local delicacies she means to bring back, the gifts, and all the many things she wishes to tell her family about her friends...

And among those things, of course, is the story of the Eternal.