HIGURASHI KOZUE
"In the end, it's all my fault."
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By a very strange coincidence, Kokoro met Kozue, who seems to be lost in the middle an errand. Turns out, she's actually a shut-in that lived for many years in the Tamahara forest, and seems to be an Angel Gamer who survive by herself. While her first impression may seem odd because of her very carefree yet air-headed attitude; she seems to be related to a certain rumors regarding the Tamahara shrine..?
Current Story
Impressions towards Kozue seems to be mostly strange and full of questions at first, as nobody seems to ever talk about how a person have been living in the town's forest for many years, and a teenage girl like Kozue would be independent in the woods by her own. This also adds to how Kozue perceives everything in a more "nature" and traditional style, like how she rely on the woods and forest to practice her Angel Gaming skills.
For being quite experienced in living in the wilds by herself, Kozue is often seen as the one leading the group during their adventures, adding that she's also the oldest as well. Ironically enough, she can also be the most childish or naive among the four for being completely oblivious in most modern surroundings.
The actual reason why Kozue is doing such thing is because she's actually trapped in her own guilt from her past. However, she eventually stopped being a shut-in and tries to move on from her guilt later in the story; following Kokoro along with others while discovering more about the world she refused to land a feet in the past.
Personality
- Kozue pretty much owns a tough and independent heart for being able to live by herself in the forest for years. She can also be responsible at times, making her often seen as one of the parental figure to Kokoro and Sakane. Kozue often tries her best to take care of others and even acts as the mediator between her friends whenever any conflicts happens.
- Her lack of knowledge with the outside world also corresponds with the fact that she is very oblivious and air-headed. For being sheltered in her entire childhood, she's completely bad with sense of direction and doesn't even know how to use most technologies. Kozue also struggles a lot in communications, as she can be too honest and even to the point of giving out disheartening words as praises or advice, when it's really meant to be a compliment with no ill intention.
- Like Kokoro, she can also be a bit too friendly and easily trust others (and even took jokes or sarcasms seriously). Kozue also claims herself to be forgetful and absent-minded, which actually doesn't bother Kozue at all and is something that she took as a funny matter. Sometimes one would ask how does Kozue even live alone with her own carefree and absent-minded personality...
- Kozue is also a very selfless person, as she's willing to do anything for the sake of others, even if it's a thing she's not the best at--but hardly does anything that benefits herself (she even treated it as something she simply forgets). She even mentioned that the reason why she hide herself in the forest for many years, is because she wanted to repent and stop hurting others from her own mistakes.
- Because of her past experience, she also have a bad habit of putting every blames and responsibilities towards herself when anything happens, even if it's not her fault. She rather put herself into any consequences and doesn't want any of her friends to get involved, regardless if they're innocent or not.
Stats for "Soul Flame"
As fire is one of the most common elements for ATK/RANGE focused "Hearts", Kozue specializes in attacking in bigger range; much like an actual fire. This gives Kozue much more advantage on battlefields with more opponents/obstacles, as well as a more open-fielded battle area.
Higher ATK stats are often exchanged for lower DEF stats, having an advantage in larger range does not help during defense much for Soul Flame's case, as the energies created are more suitable for destroying obstacles. The CHARGE stats is listed with quite a high number because of the fact that the fires are created in quite a slow speed, especially if the size/range of the fire is larger. A high S.C. stats is expected in most range-based "Hearts", adding the fact that the slower recharge/creation rate will consume more and more stamina as the fire is slowly created. |
Character |
Relationship description |
Appellation by Kozue |
Sometimes, others would even admit that Kozue is like an "older Kokoro" for sharing many similar traits. Though, Kozue's obliviousness does went to the point even someone like Kokoro had to teach her regarding modern tech (which Kokoro is quietly proud of). Kozue respected Kokoro a lot because if it wasn't because of Kokoro's meeting Kozue when she was lost, Kozue would have continue locking herself in the forest alone. |
"Kokoro" |
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Kozue started being more careful in Angel Gaming since she started knowing Sakane, as Kozue usually fight blindly by pure strength without any tactics. Kozue also shares a lot of her past experiences of living in the forest to Sakane. Kozue also admitted that if there's anyone she's would love to have as her younger sister, it's Sakane. |
"Sakane" |
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One of the pairs with contrasting personality, Kozue and Kagami are close to each other as they both share the same age, and also the eldest among the four. Kozue sometimes help reassuring Kagami when it comes to Kagami's phobia towards Angel Game, saying that even someone like Kozue who lived in a dangerous place, actually had more phobias than her. |
"Kagami" |
Kozue locking herself alone in the forest for the longest time is caused from her guilt that she did in the past, which is implied as another misfortune of hers. She also implied that she used to live in a huge family, which already fell apart--and all of them were said to be her fault.
Kozue's big family are shrine maidens who lives nearby Tamahara town's main shrine. Their daily ritual is to appreciate the Angels and anything related to it, like Angel Game and birds. She lived with nearly everyone from her family, her big brother, relatives and cousins except for two...which are her grandparents and her mother. Her mother died when giving birth to her and she received her "Heart" from that unfortunate incident. Her grandparents that recently died of old age, was replaced by her father (who is the eldest son) on becoming his grandfather's successor to lead the family. One day, Kozue decides to do something that her family warned; that is going to the outside world without permission. Kozue ended up being lost in the town and got into a small accident. On the other hand, Kozue's father died because of heart disease while trying to find Kozue - which Kozue didn't know until she came home. In the end, her whole family, including Kozue herself, blamed Kozue for making their "leader" died. No one wanted to be the new leader as everyone's opinions and words clashed, so her big family broke apart and walked in the own path, retired from being shrine maidens. Kozue's life became really unfortunate because she was expelled by her own brother, that she decided to live in the forest alone, as a comeuppance to her regrets.
- "Aaahh. Could you show me the way back to the forest? I'm completely lost here.... I feel like I just leaped to a future that I never went to."
- "I like living here anyway. Full of natures and animals, which completely understands you and never blame you for anything."
- "I was the one who started the huge flame that burn down my whole family's trust. That's why my "Heart" is fire-related, I guess."
Trivia
- She have a scar on her forehead.
- Her first name was taken from Chiba Kozue, a manga-ka.
Significant changes:
- During development, her original name was "Nakamura Ibuki".
- She have different color schemes in her older designs.
Etymology:
- Her last name means "sunset".
- Her first name is the katakana spelling of the kanji "梢" which means "treetop" or "tip of a branch".
- Interestingly enough, Kozue often claims that she doesn't match her first name that is known to be a quite feminine name.