PC Kurosawa

Name:
Megumi Kurosawa

As Portrayed By:
Allison

Sire:
Ankita

Clan:
Salubri

Alignment:
Anarch

Domain:
San Francisco

Mortal Life:
Megumi Kurosawa (黒澤めぐみ) is a second-generation Japanese-American immigrant (Nisei), born in Sacramento, California in 1929. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066 saw her family imprisoned within converted horse stables at the WRA concentration camp at Tule Lake. Though American citizens, their bank accounts were seized by the US government, while their farm was confiscated and forcibly transferred to neighboring white farmers. Megumi's aunt and infant cousin, still living in Japan, were killed along with over 100,000 other civilians in the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo.

Though eventually freed from the US concentration camp, Megumi's family was left with absolutely nothing after the war. She would eventually join the Red Cross, hoping to escape lingering anti-Japanese sentiment Stateside. Though officially too young for oversea service, she falsified her age to be sent abroad as a nurse. She wound up in Punjab following the disastrous Indian Independence Act of 1947, in which the dissolution of the British Raj led to the partition of a Hindu majority India and a Muslim majority Pakistan.

The partition was hastily enacted, leaving many trapped on the wrong side of geographical and religious lines. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to new homes, religious-based violence broke out. The International Committee of the Red Cross lent aid where possible, but increasing terrorism and the outright massacre of new religious minorities made this difficult. Violence escalated into military action over the disputed territory of Kashmir, eventually convincing a UN peacekeeping force to intervene. The Pakistani military continued to be called upon to protect their broader boarders as Indian forces targeted civilian installations.

One night in 1948 the joint Red Crescent relief hospital was bombed by Indian aircrafts. Many died instantly, while those fleeing the wreckage were gunned down as the planes made a second pass. Megumi fought her way through the inferno, dragging a wounded patient behind her in their singed bedding. She knew she couldn’t save them all, but she would have tried...

Post Embrace
Dying outside the debris of the relief hospital, Megumi was approached by a statuesque woman draped in a colorful sari. She saw Megumi’s fruitless attempt to drag the patients from the fire. She watched Megumi throw herself over them, taking the bullets in their stead. She was impressed, and delicately lifted Megumi aloft, carrying her deep into the Cholistan Desert, all the while sweetly whispering quotes memorized from the Bhagavad Gita. Megumi slipped from consciousness, staring up at the woman's bindi.

Megumi awoke to an unknown world, Embraced into Clan Salubri by the mysterious woman — her Sire — who she would come to know only as Ankita. Presumed dead and forbidden from returning to her mortal life, Megumi was instead tutored in all that Ankita knew — history, medicine, Vedic philosophy, and even bladesmithing. Ankita also stressed the importance of the Blood, regaling Megumi with stories of their clan — proud warriors who fought injustice, but were nearly hunted to extinction by those of less virtuous lineages. To Ankita’s knowledge, only six other Salubri survived into those modern nights, each granted asylum in Alamut out of respect for a life boon that the Old Man of the Mountain owed.

As years turned to decades, Megumi found herself struggling beneath the weight of the past. It often felt as though sin was all she had inherited — whether it be the persecution of her Japanese heritage, or the lingering distrust of her new Kindred blood. Determined to forge her own path, she eschewed the sins of Salout just as she did those of Emperor Hiroshito. She honed her anger, never daring to deny herself retribution, yet tempered and shaped it with Ankita's own philosophy of Golconda. Theirs would be a life of service, honor bound to protect the defenseless. To never give into the thirsty voice within — what Ankita called their "Rakshasa."

Modern Nights
The overarching trajectory of Megumi's tutelage was embodied in the creation, destruction, refinement, and reforging of a ceremonial blade unique to her. It was tradition among Ankita’s caste, and her own talwar — "Tamasi" — acted as a constant reminder. Its craftmanship was exquisite, an outstretched curving saber with dense koftgari inlaid along its length echoing Samhita prose. Megumi worried that she would never be capable of matching it at her own forge, but decades of patience eventually bore fruit.

After hammering all impurities from the collected materials, Megumi shaped the heated high-carbon steel, repeatedly folding it, and finally forging it together. The process differed from that of her Sire's — an aspect of self-motivation and independent study that Ankita insisted upon. Megumi had instead taken inspiration from her own heritage, crafting a gently curving Edo period katana. Though hidden in a dark scabbard, it’s long, boat-shaped blade reflected ghostly kanji, tracing Megumi’s mortal lineage. The weapon was dubbed "Muramasa," after the legendary cursed sword — and as a reminder that it should only be drawn if one’s intention was to spill blood.

With Megumi's tutelage coming to a close, Ankita revealed the final step — the diablerie of her Sire. Ankita had chosen a childe not to accompany her into eternity, but to replace her in it. Just as her Sire before, Ankita would submit herself to the Final Death, allowing Megumi to absorb all she was — her strength, her power, and even her memories. Megumi found the concept of this "Blooding" repellent, but Ankita insisted that it was the only path forward, for the Old Man of the Mountain’s pact with the Salubri was narrowly interpreted by the Ashirra, decreeing that the al-Amin would never surpass seven.

Modern nights have found Megumi searching for purpose, belonging, and perhaps even kinship. She struggles with the maelstrom of new information in her brain, trying to make sense of flashes of someone else’s jumbled memories. It’s exhausting, but she was assured that it would all make sense... eventually. Until then, she has committed herself — and her sword — to whatever cause she deems worthy.

CHARACTER SHEET

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