Character Profile: Kirika Yumura

She awoke alone in the house one day. Though it seemed like an ordinary house, she had the hunch that everything around her was a pose. She discovered a school uniform with a card that identified her as Kirika Yumura; however, she seemed to know that this also was a pose. The only other name she knew for herself, however, was "Noir". The French word for black, she somehow knew that it was the codename for an assassin that was feared throughout the world. In a drawer, she discovered a Beretta M1934 handgun and a box of 9mm APC bullets. Not knowing why, she still knew exactly how to use the gun. Further back, she discovered a pocket watch. The presence of the watch seemed to stir strange feelings in her. Also, when opened, the watch plays an eerily familiar melody. On a computer in the main room, she discovered a contact for Mireille Bouquet, "a most trustworthy assassin for hire". She sent her an e-mail with the cryptic message, "Make a pilgrimage for the past with me." Somehow, she knew just how to get her attention.

Even before Mireille arrived, however, people started gunning for her. She fought off one group of killers before she sent the e-mail, and another arrived just as the two of them started talking outside a construction site. After fighting them off, Kirika tries to explain herself to Mireille. The watch seemed to be the key element. Mireille doesn't agree at first, explaining that she killed people, not helped them, and that she preferred working alone, but Mireille eventually relents and accepts Kirika's unusual request...on one condition. When they solve the mystery, Mireille will kill her. Her reply: "I'll be waiting for that moment."

Though she does not know how, killing comes very, very naturally to her. Though she will not hesitate to shoot someone with her handgun and usually kill that person with the shot, her real knack comes from her scary ability to adapt practically anything to a killing purpose. She can take eyeglass frames and stab you with them or jump off a ledge and hang you by your own necktie, all without batting an eye or shedding a tear. She should be scared out of her wits with this eerie talent, but part of the mystery she's trying to solve is her ability to do all this while perfectly calm. Killing is not just the only thing that seems to come unbidden to Kirika. She also appears to know how to care for her gun as well as tend to wounds.

All Kirika wants to know is "why", not realizing just how convoluted her journey will become.