[GFD] Kozue Shimizu

"Hah! About time I got to UA, I can finally stretch my limbs and take things seriously!"





General Information


Name
Kozue Shimizu
"The one and only!"
Identity
Nessie
"...What? I know I don't bear a TON of resemblance, but I have the fins! Not to mention the name is cool and recognizable! Plus what's the worst that'll happen, a fake creature from across the world takes me to court?"
Gender
Female
Age
16
Date of Birth
December 31
"It was literally, like, five minutes before midnight. I just barely missed out on being a new years baby,"
Place of Origin
Kyoto, Japan
Occupation
Student
Faction
UA; Class 1-B
"I'm gonna show everyone what I'm made of!"





Appearance



(NOTE: I went with 'close enough' on this image. Her actual appearance has several differences, but this one gives the general vibe.)


Physical Appearance
"Yes, I do the tongue flick thing... You can stop staring now!"

Kozue is a very obvious mutant even at a glance, with distinctly nonhumanoid features. She stands relatively tall at 5'8'' with a lean but athletic build. Though by no means androgynous her curves are subtle and peoples' eyes are often drawn to her other more extravagant features, such as her tail. It is extremely long— nearly six feet in total— and fully prehensile, which she uses just as dexterously as if it was a third arm. ("People get jelly when they see me drinking tea without using my hands at all!") Her tail is fully covered in rough scales that range in hue from turquoise to green. Her tail scales are the only ones that are coarse like a lizard's; the rest of her scales are smooth and shiny like a fish's.

Kozue is a woman who is bottom-heavy, with well-developed muscular legs earned through her extensive experience in track and gymnastics. Scales dot her thighs, and increase in density until they fully cover her feet, which are completely unlike a human's. She only has four toes that are much longer and fully webbed, similar to an aquatic reptile's. ("Built-in flippers make me a lean mean swimming machine!")

Her upper body has scales going up the sides of her body and her back, though they are low in density. Along her spine Kozue has two dorsal fins; a larger one between her shoulderblades, and a lesser one down the small of her back. ("These make shirts a nightmare! But they look pretty wicked,") Upon reaching her shoulders the scales start again, and progressively grow thicker along her arms much like her legs until the hands are fully scaled. All of her fingers ("Except for my thumb, thank god,") are webbed together like her toes.

Her neck is devoid of scales around the throat but they are present in low density up the back. While one might not notice it when initially looking at the other catchier parts of her appearance, she also has gills on the sides of her neck. Scales dot along her jawline down to her chin, and her ears are frilled. She has a long reptilian tongue that forks at the tip, and she habitually flicks it out to 'smell' the world around her just like a regular reptile would. She keeps her unassuming black hair short and out of her striking reptilian eyes. They are a fascinating mix of inhuman colours— most predominant of which being gold— but if you look close enough you can likely find all the colours of the rainbow glittering in some part or another. ("No need to look at me that closely though, jeez,")

Civilian Clothes
"I absolutely love my dope perks... But I gotta be honest and say clothes are a huge pain in the ass. Because of my dorsal fins I need custom-made shirts; because of my tail I need custom-made pants and underwear; and because of my feet I need special shoes! It means that to use normal clothing I pretty much always have to rip a hole somewhere,"

Kozue almost always dresses casual when she isn't in her school uniform, with T-shirts and shorts being her go-to. She doesn't hate skirts, but she doesn't love them either. She dislikes getting all formal, and especially hates dresses. She often only uses minimal makeup as well. ("Natural all the way, baby!")

Hero Outfit
Kozue's hero outfit is pretty normal as far as newbie hero outfits go: Mostly spandex with accommodations for her traits, she wears a one-piece suit for her body that is decorated with shark motifs. ("Sharks are cool, okay?") She also covers her face in what is pretty much blatantly a shark mask. ("I said they're cool, okay?!")





Personality


Bad Habits
"Bad habits? Pfft I don't have many of tho—"

First and foremost, Kozue has a huge ego. ("Do not!") She constantly inflates it by blaming all of her personal errors on other things, like the environment, happenstance, or even other people. ("This is slander! Lies and slander!") Moreover it's so fragile she feels obligated to retaliate whenever anybody challenges her. Whenever her ego is hurt in a way she can't retaliate against, she will often go silent or even storm out of the room. She'll go through basically any hoop to avoid admitting to being wrong.

Kozue also has a bad habit of talking down to others or shrugging off what other people say, even authority figures sometimes. It's not necessarily impossible to get her to listen though, so long as you word it in a way that vaguely aligns with what she is feeling or talking her up in some form.

Kozue is also a bit of an oxymoron in the sense that she is both a hard worker and a slacker at the same time. Whenever she is in 'work mode' she will not stop until what she needs to get done is done, but if she's in 'slack mode' you'll have a slim chance of getting her to do anything. The times she swaps between 'work mode' and 'slack mode' are inconsistent, and perhaps may never be known to any mind but hers.

Kozue has a tendency to take on challenges head-first even if they are too much for her to handle, usually as a result of underestimating the opposition.

Goal
"My goal? To kick ass of course! Okay fine fine something more specific? Well becoming a pro hero is certainly a start. Who knows, maybe even aiming for the top ten, eh?"

General Personality
Two of Kozue's most defining traits are confidence and assertiveness. She has no issue doing what it takes to get what she wants, even if it means facing down impossible odds ("Or even worse, detention,"). Kozue's state of existence in school was an inconsistent one. On one hand she was the school's top athlete and had her own posse as a 'popular' kid, but on the other she was widely disliked by both students and teachers alike for her abrasive attitude. For the people she called friends however, Kozue isn't all vinegar. She is very much a hype woman who can get absolutely pumped about things that other people would normally only give half effort for. She also can be a pretty good voice of reason when consulted on certain subjects due to her blunt honesty. A precious few people even got to see the vulnerable side of Kozue, often those she 'fancied'. While her strong act persists against most things, when her will does falter she often 180's into bashfulness. ("Hey, I'll have you know I only act bashful around two guys and two guys only! And neither of them are in my class any more so jokes on you! Ha!")





Personal Life


Mother
"My mom is so sweet... Too sweet, it's embarrassing,"
Amaya Shimizu (Alive; Civilian; Lifeguard)
(Quirk — Transformer — "Siren's Call" — Wile a majority of her body is submerged in water, Amaya is able to transform into a siren form with a strong fish lower body. While in this form Amaya is capable of singing lullabies that cause nearby people to mellow out and even fall asleep if exposed for long enough. Her greatly increased speed, strength, and calming lullabies make her nearly unparalleled at aquatic rescues.)



Father
"My dad has a great sense of humor... Too great, he gets on my nerves,"
Genki Shimizu (Alive; Civilian; Ramen Chef)
(Quirk — Mutant — "Lizard Man" — Genki is a lizard man, with a fully scaled body and lizard traits such as a prehensile tail he uses as a third hand and a forked tongue.)

Siblings
"No siblings! I was all that my mom and dad wanted and more!"
Extended Family
"Hmm... I don't think we have anybody noteworthy. I know mom has a bunch of similarly fishy quirks on her side, and dad has a bunch of similarly lizardy quirks on his. I come from a long line of animal people!"
History
A young Kozue was born in a hospital, much like any normal child. She was the first (And to date only) kid to her parents, and as such she got plenty of attention from them. She was doted on constantly and given all sorts of toys and gifts to play with, spoiling her silly. This translated to when she first entered grade school, her entitled attitude quickly outing her as the 'problem kid' in school. She didn't have many friends, and after a couple years the bullying started. They were things that you'd expect of grade schoolers bullying other grade schoolers, like drawing all over her Getubako, paying 'keep away' with her note books, and constantly belitting and ridiculing her. She responded to this bullying by at first receding inwards... But then in later grades she started pushing back. She became even more abrasive, and she started exercising and growing to become strong and quick enough to take on the bullies. Soon enough she was getting into scuffles, and her former bullies soon found their notebooks tossed in fountains among multiple other forms of vindictive punishment. In spite of how many times the school talked to her parents about her behaviour, to her parents she was a little angel who could do no wrong. In spite of how much trouble she made however, she was unlike other delinquents in that she still kept up with her school work and maintained good grades all the way up into middle school.

When she finally moved on to middle school, she took her new environment by storm. She quickly asserted herself, and her confidence quickly made people gravitate toward her. Compared to her 'delinquent' reputation in grade school, she ended up becoming the 'popular kid' in middle school. Carrying over from her spoiled childhood and backlash against bullies, she ended up bullying and belittling other students in kind. Nobody liked Kozue besides the people that saw her as something strong and powerful. In middle school she quickly joined sports clubs, predominantly track and swimming where she excellect with her strong legs and beneficial aquatic traits respectively. She quickly became the school's top athlete due to her work ethic, and though she wasn't an honour roll student she never got a test score below a B. Her teachers found her confusing: For all intents and purposes she was a great student, and yet she was also a troublemaker. Even weirder still was she expressed a strong interest in becoming a Hero, and in the final year of her time in middle school she worked especially hard to impress the faculty with her test scores and athletic performance. At last she was approved to go to UA, and in the hero division too! Her smugness radiated out to the people around her— She is totally ready to make her mark on the world! She absolutely expects to quickly assert herself and become influential just like she did in middle school. ("Class 1-B, here I come!")





Quirk


Name
"I like to call it 'Liz-Fishiness',"
Quirk Type
Mutant
Power
"I inherited all sorts of cool perks from both sides of my family, and I even have a couple that are completely unique to me!"

Kozue has a really long prehensile tail with enough dexterity to act in many ways like a third arm for her, allowing her to carry things like bags. She can even do things as precise as taking a sip from a cup of tea. It is covered in thicker scales, acting as armour that allow her tail specifically to take a fair bit of punishment. She is able to strike with her tail as well like a coarse whip.
("When I become a hero, I want to attach a weighted ball or something to the end of my tail so I can inflict some real damage with my thwacks!"
She also has reptilian eyes which are capable of seeing infrared light, giving her thermal vision that allows her to track living creatures even through smoke or darkness.
("They gave me such a good advantage in hide and seek that I wasn't allowed to play it any more,")
Accompanying her enhanced sense of sight her reptilian forked tongue gives her an enhanced sense of smell that trumps regular human noses. By habitually flicking out her tongue she is able to pinpoint specific smells and even tell which direction they are coming from. With people she is familiar with, she has also memorized their scent and can find them even if they're a few rooms away.
("This also contributed to why I was banned form hide and seek,")
Her hands are clawed, allowing her to inflict slash wounds on enemies.
("They definitely aren't as sharp as claws you'd find on, like, a lion person or something. But I can still scratch you up real good!")
Kozue has perfectly functioning gills that allow her to breathe underwater just like a fish. Her webbed hands, webbed feet, and her dorsal fins allow her significantly increased mobility in water.
("I was the best athlete on the swim team, but I wasn't allowed to participate in competitions since it would be 'unfair', which is super lame!")

Supermoves
"I'm not even sure what would count as a 'supermove' since these perks I've had all my life, so I guess I'll just say I have none for now... Though maybe I'll find out I can do something super cool later!"

Drawbacks
"Cool as all my perks are, they DO have some sucky parts to them,"

Kozue's multiple unique traits result in clothes being a particularly annoying issue: her dorsal fins require her to get custom made shirts; her tail requires her to get custom made shorts and panties; and her unusual reptilian feet require her to get custom-made shoes.
("Since I can't really borrow clothes, I always keep spares in my bag and locker just in case the ones I'm wearing get messed up,")
Kozue's eyes, though excellent in the application of thermal vision, are sensitive to light. This means bursts of light can easily disorient her.
("It also makes shining a flashlight directly into my eyes hurt even more than for other people,")
Though she has a superior sense of smell using her reptilian tongue, Kozue's sense of hearing is lacking. She often requires people to repeat things and will sometimes not notice things coming from the side.
("I tend to bump into people a lot in crowds because of it,")
One particularly troublesome trait of Kozue's is her being mesothermic. She does generate body heat, but not quite as efficiently as a regular human. As a result in winter or even just an unusually cold room Kozue slows down both physically and mentally, usually becoming lethargic. She is also extremely vulnerable to frost-type attacks.
("I'm at least thankful I'm not completely cold-blooded. I'm pretty sure I would die,")
Kozue's webbed hands are troublesome in daily life due to their significantly reduced manual dexterity. She is weaker at gripping things, and it's basically impossible for her to properly do things like pull a trigger or wear regular gloves.
("On some days I get so frustrated with it I'm tempted to just take a knife to the webbing... But that would be SUPER painful and it would also kinda detract from what makes me special,")
Finally the rest of her fishy scales are prone to drying up, becoming flaky and itchy. This can prove extremely distracting, even in the heat of combat.
("I always keep lotion on hand to moisturize, and I generally prefer working in humid climates or in cities by the sea. Trust me dry scales are the WORST,")

Fighting Style
"Oh boy here's the fun part. So, I don't do martial arts or anything but I have gotten into some scraps. I like to be nimble and dodge stuff, plus my tail and sharp nails come in handy for when I'm unarmed. Don't underestimate my tail thwack! I'm not against doing cheaty stuff like biting or kicking dirt in peoples' faces either. Oh, and good luck trying to fight me in water, I'll swim circles around you guaranteed!"