☆ OOC; Application
☆ Character: Hashimoto Fumie
☆ Series/Fandom: Dennō Coil
☆ Deviance: Deviance 1
☆ Age: 11
☆ Gender: Female
☆ Species: Human
☆ Appearance: Fumie is a young Japanese girl who doesn’t especially stand out in a crowd. She’s very much on the short side, actually - standing at a whopping 3 feet 11 inches and weighing 59 pounds - making her very easy to pass over. Her dark brown hair stops between her shoulder blades and is surprisingly neat and straight, with a few thick bangs sweeping to either side of her forehead depending on how she brushes her hair that day. The longer bangs that might frame her face if left to hang are pinned back by two matching pink hair clips. Fumie’s brown eyes are easily seen through the clear, visor like glasses that take up the majority of her face. However, they aren’t very distracting and somehow blend well with her face, which is good because ninety-nine percent of the time, she’s wearing them. Her face is round and expressive and her skin tone is a healthy colour, not especially tan but still showing that she spends much of her time running around outside. Fumie’s has a normal frame for her age despite her short stature. She doesn’t look especially skinny, just small. Her clothes outside of school are simple t-shirts and sleeveless shirts and shorts or short pleated skirts, all of which are average fit. There are pink cuffs around her wrists and a fat pink bag hanging on her hips. Both of these items contain cyber upgrades she has installed.
☆ Psychology: By most accounts, Fumie is a normal, cheerful sixth grader. She spends most of her time in school, studying and working on projects and during the summer goes to a prep school. This may even be her choice as she states in regards to going to prep school, “I don’t want to lose sight of my path in the future.” This sort of clearheaded, goal orientated approach carries through most of her tasks, although she isn’t above cheating a little to finish the job. She can be a surprisingly hard worker and is rarely seen resting. Fumie is usually out and about, working on a case or schoolwork or improving her hacking skills.
Among her friends, she’s the most active and loud girl. Sometimes running purely on energy drinks, Fumie is always ready to go, constantly encouraging her friends, telling them to cheer up, giving out orders and throwing her enthusiasm into her work. People are often quite amazed (and exasperated) with Fumie’s energy. She’s usually quite reliable, sticking by friends and trying to help out the best she can. Her strong personality means she won’t back down from fights or challenges and indeed relishes in them. Her brother points out her brash nature usually leads her to come across as abrasive or mean and indeed she can be but rarely on purpose. Her empathy is just rather lacking. Fumie still tries to keep her friends happy and often goes out of her way to help, even if she’ll insist she only helped because she felt like it. Fumie can also be a gossiper, usually talking about the latest net rumours. She also has a healthy appreciation for money, though only in meta (which she can use to buy upgrades for her hacking).
In her spare time, Fumie is the seventh member of the Coil Cyber Investigations. Using her hacking skills, searches Daikoku for missing Dennou Pets - cyber pets. Along with Daichi, she seems to be the most active detective, hunting her ‘quarry’ in her spare time. While there’s a treasure and money aspect to her work, it isn’t the overriding factor. Perhaps as a reflection of the quick reflexes needed to catch pets, Fumie does tend to jump to conclusions (like declaring a friend an ‘evil pawn’ based on very little evidence). Surprisingly, she does try to gather facts and won’t shy away from research. Fumie is willing to do what needs to be done to find the truth. Stalking, spying, eavesdropping, ambushing a suspect from the bushes with a laser beam, camouflage, hacking…all of these things are perfectly acceptable means of detective work. On one case in particular, she applied logic and biological patterns in order to better understand the nature of her most constant obstacle. When frustrated, she tries to solve the problem rather than give up on it. Still, like with everything else, Fumie’s enthusiasm and brashness get in the way of her interactions with possible witnesses and suspects. Usually at that point, Yasako does the talking and covers Fumie’s mouth. Also, although her strict logical approach can be good, it makes it hard for her to accept a different outcome to a case or an unexpected twist.
In fact, that logic is tied to her fears and social problems. Fumie has a deep rooted fear of unnatural, unusual things, like the paranormal. While it leads to amusing ways to scare her through ghost stories, it relates well to her cool, logical way of thinking. When things cease making sense on a purely factual level and edges into the strange and frightening, Fumie’s fears begin to take over. She’ll outright deny the most ‘logical’ solution simply because it doesn’t fit with her way of thinking. The perfect example is when Kyoko wanders into the other side, Fumie refuses to believe it possible and searches for a logical conclusion, even given the outright bizarreness of the situation. The alternative - admitting the glasses could be so dangerous and that people’s souls could be trapped in the digital landscape - was far too frightening. This puts her at a disadvantage as things spiral into darker and more unknown territory. She is, however, capable of reacting in those situations, though only after taking some time to herself or because the situation calls for immediate action. As the series progresses, it becomes easier for Fumie to accept the strangeness, although she doesn’t lose her logical edge. Rather it adapts to fit the new information.
This logic also relates to her core social abilities. While Fumie is the most outspoken, outgoing and friendly one of the group, she is also the one who puts a barrier between herself and others. Ever since Satchii killed her cyber pet, Fumie has tried not to get attached to living things (obviously, she took the death very hard). According to her new world view, everything will eventually die and getting attached will only lead to being hurt. This isn’t to say she doesn’t care for others but rather she tries not to and puts up fronts, claiming she doesn’t worry or only helps others for the sake of herself. In reality, she cares deeply for the people and pets around her. Her measures to stop herself seem to only serve to make it more obvious that she is very much attached. Fumie’s expressive emotions care over to her sadness and pain and she isn’t able to hold back tears when they want to come. Her hard work to save pets and her downright determination to not allow them to die - even if the pet turns out to be the Illegals she fights - also gives her away. She isn’t very good at handling a failure on this front.
Yet this determination to put a barrier between herself and others is part of what makes it difficult for her to understand people. While talented at observation, Fumie lacks the ability to grasp the deeper meaning in people’s words and actions. Her desire to stay unattached doesn’t work; it simply means she misses details in the lives of the people she cares about. Because Fumie is unable to see beyond the thin barriers of others, she inadvertently can be insensitive and mean and is often confused when others react negatively. This also means she tends to glaze over the worries of others, assuming with just some encouraging words they’ll feel better.
As a few final notes, Fumie happens to be fond of sweets, with banana candies being her favourite. She can be stubborn, seems to enjoy western food like toast and likes checking message boards and studying biology. She is a strict older sister and rather manipulative towards her brother but it should be noted that he’s not entirely without fault towards her as well.
☆ General Skills/Abilities: Fumie’s main - and best - skill involve her hacking abilities. She is quite adept at hijacking local electronics to work at her command, tracing networks and hacking into various Spaces, even holding her own against the highly accomplished Encoder, Isako, in a hacking war. She gave herself a special patch that allows her to shoot laser beams (mega-be) from her forehead on command, although it needs recharging after so many blasts. Her metatags - computer patches designed to look like classic o-fuda and which are thrown and slapped on in a similar manner - allow her to quickly alter her environment with endless sorts of patches. Two types she’s seen using are a metatag to create brick walls as a shield (or distraction) and a tag for changing stoplights. In order to open up new access points, she can just kuro bug spray to break down the current version of the Space and open up backdoors to other parts of the server. Fumie can also analyze the environment and read the data on a display that comes from her cuffs. Oyaji, Fumie’s pet servant, is highly resistant to Space and is excellent for eavesdropping, searching for missing pets and creating distractions. Everything she needs is housed in the tiny pack at her side, which is a virtual hammer space. Simply put, all her skills lie in her impressive hacking skills and manipulation of the virtual world.
☆ General Weaknesses: Despite her leet hacking skills, she’s still a young girl. She isn’t especially strong, agile or fast. Indeed, she doesn’t seem to be very good at most physical tasks, being average at best. People her own age can easily overpower her and doesn’t seem to know how to fight back. Her hacking skills also cannot beat Encoding - basically, a more advanced form of computer programming which relies on hand drawn glyphs - and she certainly isn’t the best hacker in the world. Most of her resources are also perishable. Metatags, her laser beams and Kuro bug spray can all run out, leaving her near defenseless. To create more of these things, she needs metabugs (and the help of Mega-baa). Her reliance on her glasses leave her disorientated without them (in one episode, she appears to be dizzy and sluggish after shutting them off). Oyaji, while stronger than most virtual pets, is still susceptible to viruses, server problems and deletion.
☆ History: Born and raised in Daikoku, Japan, Hashimoto Fumie has had a mostly normal life. Her parents weren’t especially strict - in fact they didn’t seem to mind their young daughter running off at any point in time for many hours - and her younger brother, while annoying to her, mostly stayed out of her way (and apparently spied on her from that distance). She went to elementary school with a boy named Daichi, who developed a crush on her and showed his affection by picking on her endlessly. Thus their relationship changed from friendship to constant rivalry. They used hacking as a means to fight each other and Fumie soon became interested in technology for reasons other than kicking Daichi’s ass. Another friend of her’s, Haraken, ended up working with her as part of the Biology Club and as a fellow investigation member.
Like most kids her age, she owned a cyber pet. It was a mouse-type that she had raised carefully for three years. Fumie was very attached to it and cared about it deeply but the pet was deleted by Satchii, the city’s anti-virus software, for a small glitch. Fumie was devastated and changed her outlook on affection and caring from that point on.
As member number seven of Mega-baa’s Coil Dennō Detective Agency, she spent much of her time rescuing cyber pets from Obsolete Space, charging meta for her work. It is unclear why she joined, though it may have to do with the death of her pet. She employed the use of a specially upgraded cyber pet to help her in her work named Oyaji but refused to actually call him her pet. Of course, Fumie’s rivalry with Daichi also carried over to investigations, generally over whose case it was.
Things changed when Yasako moved to Daikoku. Fumie met Yasako briefly while chasing down a cyber cat, then later when Densuke, Yasako’s cyber dog, became lost. Fumie took the case and the two spent the afternoon running from Satchii. Though they escaped, Densuke had fallen ill from an encounter with an Illegal. Fumie led Yasako to Mega-baa’s shop and with some effort, found a way to help him. It was through this that Fumie and Mega-baa talked Yasako into becoming investigation member number eight.
Densuke ended up in trouble again when the Encoder Isako kidnapped him. Fumie and Yasako managed to get Densuke back after chasing Isako across town. They got a glimpse of her strange activities and Fumie was ordered by Megabaa to hunt Isako down. As luck would have it, Isako was to be their newest classmate. The investigation duo attempted to befriend her, which went horribly and ended with Fumie threatening not to hold back if Isako harmed another pet. Daichi decided to get involved as well, starting a hacking war between Isako, Fumie and Daichi. Fumie and Daichi ultimately lost to Isako but Fumie managed to hack Isako’s network and steal information during the fight. The only thing they were able to read from it was ‘Michiko.’
She also took this time to set-up a metabug hunt to introduce Yasako to Haraken. The hunt didn’t turn up any worthwhile metabugs but Fumie did learn that her little brother had been working for Daichi. Like any good sister, she immediately demanded he turn spy for her and he decided it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. They also discovered that Haraken’s pet was, in fact, Satchii.
This revelation sparked Yasako and Fumie to start a side investigation on Haraken. When questioning him and stalking him turned up nothing and with Mega-baa out of town, Fumie decided they would instead spend the time observing Satchii and learning its ways. At the end of their investigation, they discovered Haraken was researching in Kanna’s honour. Both Fumie and Yasako vowed to help him from that moment forward.
Cases and research continued on as normal, although the kids decided to attempt to relax at the end of term summer festival. They played games and genuinely enjoyed themselves, with Fumie and Daichi spending some alone time together that came crashing down when Daichi remembered his mission and challenged Fumie to a duel. Fumie, naturally, was only too happy to accept, even though the loser would lose their glasses. She and Yasako trained together and engaged in the trial of courage on the night of the Biology Club sleepover. Things were interrupted by a sudden appearance of Godmode!Isako, who blasted the hell out of a Satchii being used by Haraken’s aunt. This seemed like a good enough reason to call it a night.
With things getting more serious, the trio of Fumie, Haraken and Yasako followed clues left for them by Kanna. They were detoured several times by the antics of Daichi. Once for trying to outdo Fumie by raising a whale sized fish-type Illegal that submerged the city in virtual water and another time by trying to grow manly hairs which turned out to be sentient beard-type Illegals which colonized the children’s faces and started nuclear war. Yes, really. Fumie managed to save Daichi from arrest, get him to declare her the winner of their challenge and get rid of the fish problem but it was mostly Yasako who managed to help the bearded ones find a new haven.
Fumie attempted to take this time to return to studying but was called in by her friends when Denpa’s Plesiosaur-type Illegal pet was in danger of being deleted. At first Fumie blew it off, knowing it was doomed to die anyway. But she came back, extra determined to help, helping the other children form a plan to save him. They failed, however, when Plesio died in the sunrise. For Fumie, it confirmed her belief that getting attached was a bad idea but she cried just as hard as the other children over his death.
☆ Reality Description: Daikoku is a mid-sized Japanese city. It is heavily government and corporation driven. In fact, it is the second example of a governmental prefecture in Japan. The Megamass glasses company wields great influence over the town. Many parts of the town are under construction. There is another section of the city across the railroad tracks which is considered distinct and still another on the over side of the river. The town is full of backstreets and alleys and little niches and cut off areas, as well as being littered with abandoned shrines. Otherwise it is fairly normal looking, not exceptionally futuristic considering the year is 2026 and looking more ‘modern’ than anything.
The glasses worn by people are spread through the world and connected by a global wireless internet network which displays a virtual reality mapped over the physical reality. The virtual reality maps are constantly updated, though some are less updated with others, causing inconsistencies between the realities. The wireless network also runs through all electronics in the city, meaning everything from streetlights to vending machines to ATMs are hackable by a person wearing glasses. Most people use them, though younger people seem more prone to them. There are also Obsolete Spaces which house metabugs, a sort of raw software bug that can be manipulated by users into various patches and hacks and are used as underground currency.
This virtual network allows people to experience games, music, websites, videos, phone calls, digital pets…a limitless array of digital functions all stored in glasses. The glasses part allows for visual experiences while small ear pieces located on the stems of the glasses allow users to hear digital sounds. The glasses do take a certain amount of imagination to use, as people are interacting with things that cannot be physically felt. Generally the tools used to interact with the digital environment are metaphorical or day-to-day objects in order to be easier to use.
Because of the virtual landscape, Megamass employs a program called Satchii (which looks like a giant kidney bean with a smile face on it) to act as a firewall, virus software and maintenance patch. Another virtual creature is called an Illegal. They come in varying forms but all appear to be lost and confused, though several types are dangerous, many wish to return ‘home.’ Null-type Illegals induce Dennou Coil syndrome to pull the consciousness of people to the other side (which is actually the Coil Domain, a place created for virtual medical treatments).
☆ Miscellaneous Additions: Since arriving, Fumie's psychology has changed. She has not personally experienced death but has seen the deaths of people she loves. When Sam died, she nearly wanted to leave the plane for good.
She has forced herself to grow up more and finds it difficult to express to anyone what's changed about her. The one time she tried was a fit at Daichi which didn't go so well.
Her reality is a mash of Daikoku, Minato's Japan (she has the Dark Hour, huzzah!) and 1970's Manchester with bits and pieces of other worlds scattered within. The Dark Hour is a highly stressful event for her, one which Minato graciously helps her deal with.