ADAMS, Yuki

ALIAS(ES): Yuki Adams
BIRTHDAY: April, 4, 1996
BIRTHPLACE: Kamakura, Japan
CURRENT: Lefcourt Castle
FAMILY:

According to the papers presented to the British authorities:
• Mother: Masako Hojo, aged 40. Half-blooded status. deceased.
• Father: William Adams, aged 42. Muggle born. deceased.

The real one:
• Father: Hojo Shinnosuke, aged 42. Pure-blooded status. Appendix to the Hojo family.
• Mother: Hojo Michiko, aged 40. Half-blooded status.

• Cousin: Hojo Shiori, aged 24 . Pure-blooded status. Leader of the Hojo family.
• Cousin: Nikaidô Sayoko, aged 20. Pure-blooded status. Leader of the Nikaidô family
• Cousin: Hojo Hanako, aged 20. Pure-blooded status. Formerly second in the line of succession, now wife of the leader of the Fujiwara.
• Cousin: Hojo Hironobu, aged 26. Pure-blooded status
• Cousin: Hojo Kazutoyo, aged 23. Pure-blooded status
• Grandfather: Hojo Haruyasu, aged 77. Pure-blooded status. Former leader of the Hojo family.
• Grandmother: Hojo Kaede, aged 76. Muggle born.


BLOOD: Pure-blood, but listed as half-blood in her official papers.
ORIENTATION: Heterosexual
WAND: 15 inch, cherry, dragon heartstring.

DESCRIPTION: Almost 5’2” and growing. She has grown significantly in the past few years and will soon pass her two older cousins Shiori and Sayoko. Her weight, however, failed to keep up with her growth spurt. Right now she’s barely scratching the 90 lbs line. Like the vast majority of the Japanese population she has brown eyes and black hair, however since dying the hair seems to be “in” these days she, too, has dabbled with it.
PLAY-BY: Shida Mirai
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PATRONUS: Hokkaido brown bear
BOGGART: The corpses of her cousins Shiori and Sayoko after they killed each other
MIRROR OF ERISED: Right now it’s very simple. She really just wants her cousins to get along.

HABITS: In such cases Yuki puts both of her thumbs on the outer side of the fingernails of both of her pinkies. Then on the inner side, then on the tip. After that she moves on to the next finger and does the same. She continues with this until reaching her thumbs. That is when she touches the inner side, then outer side, then tip with her index fingers. After that she starts with her pinkies again. She also tends to crack her knuckles, which some people describe to produce a sickening sound.
PET PEEVE: There’s generally not much to set her off. There are things she likes and things she doesn’t. There are things she finds irritating and wrong, but the thing is, usually she won’t get ticked off as long as it doesn’t concern her. She has learned that getting involved with things all the time doesn’t really lead to anything. For example, she really dislikes slavery and knows from Sayoko that it, more or less, exists in Britain these days. But she also knows that she can’t do anything to change it and that getting involved may not be the smartest thing to do.

TRAITS: Mayumi is familiar with hard work. At Shirasagi the status a student has within his family is irrelevant. Positions are earned, which somehow fits into her way of thinking. Personally she supports a meritocratic system, which actually differs significantly from what her cousin Shiori has in mind.

She is known to be curious and is one of the students who picked up voluntary language courses at Shirasagi (not all of them do that, especially old clans shy away from it.) As a born gotoku neko Mayumi has learned to be disciplined, because a lack of discipline can cause huge problems. A shift into natural format the wrong time, even by accident, can have massive consequences when the wrong people are around, the gotoku neko are, after all, classified as magical beasts in Japan. Also, since she’s born the way she was, she has a natural affinity towards transfiguration.

That said, Mayumi actually likes school. Except divination, which just irritates her. It’s not a science. It’s a joke!

Right now she’s in a pickle. She adores both of her older cousins, but the current tensions are getting to her. Needless to say she doesn’t like the status quo and feels somewhat bad for requesting sanctuary from Sayoko, but Shiori, so she believes, didn’t leave her any other choice.

The move to Britain is certainly a culture shock, however, given her natural curiosity (which didn’t kill the cat, nope) it is actually quite the adventure for her.

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BEST CLASS: Transfiguration
WORST CLASS: Divination (which is why she's not taking it)
CLASSES TAKING:
Ancient Runes
Arithmancy
Astronomy
Care of Magical Creatures
Charms
Dark Arts
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Herbology
History of Magic
Muggle Studies
Potions
Transfiguration


GOAL: No actual career goals. For now she’s set on finishing school and the rest will be decided upon once it’s an issue.
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HISTORY:

The official story, invented by the Nikaidô after Mayumi requested sanctuary, tells a tale about the muggle William Adams, who came to Japan for work and who fell in love with a Japanese witch named Hojo Masako. They married, produced offspring and eventually both died in an accident. The offspring, Yuki Adams, then came under the wings of Rika Lefcourt. Why? Apparently because Rika Lefcourt, having lost her own family in tragic accidents, had a good heart. Or something like that. Yuki Adams attended the Japanese academy for wizardry and witchcraft well into her fifth year (fourth at Hogwarts.) However, due to certain entanglements connected with the accident of her parents and several other, local, issues, her guardian decided to bring her Great Britain where she would finish her education properly and away from the problems trials over inheritance tended to bring.

In reality, however, Yuki Adams was born as Hojo Mayumi, member of the old and distinguished Hojo family. By definition she was born as royalty in Japan’s wizarding world. Like most, if not all, of her status she grew up rather protected from the outside world. Her contact with muggles was initially kept to a minimum while her contact with other clans was effectively zero. At that time she was also too young to have any knowledge and understanding of politics and connected issues. Her cousins were all older than her and by the time she was getting somewhat interesting to them, they all moved off to Shirasagi one by one. And Shirasagi, the White Crane, tended to keep people busy.

Noticing that her daughter was bored, Mayumi’s mother became rather overbearing quickly. Strangely, Mayumi didn’t care much for her parents’ attempts with spoiling her. She was usually quite satisfied with smaller things and, as she grew, she was really waiting to go to Shirasagi herself. In her naivety she imagined that she’d spend most of her time with her older cousins.

Of course she was wrong.

When she finally turned ten it was time for her to be sorted. The old naginata at Shirasagi, said to be a relic of one of the Eight Heroes of the Great Spook War, the Youkai Daisensou many centuries ago, had the idea of sorting her into Sakura.

It was not unheard of that Hojo made Sakura, but it wasn’t very common either. Shiratatsu and Kiku were two common houses for members of the Hojo family. Kikyo happened and luckily, so the Hojo thought, Black Lotus never did. Sakura was rare, but it was possible.

The general philosophy was that Black Lotus and Shiratatsu were antagonists. Black Lotus, many people considered them to be the bad guys and the history of wizards and witches in Japan somewhat proved them right. Shiratatsu, in comparison, were the white knights in shining armor. Those in Kiku would usually lean towards Shiratatsu, but would try to stay out of hostilities and would rather excel at academic pursuits. The members of Kikyo were known to be hard workers and usually the house received most muggle born students than any other house.

Sakura, however, was different. The house was founded as a tribute to Kabayama Kozue, one of the Eight. Kabayama Kozue, who came from Iga province, was one of the later famed Iga shinobi. Her magnificent skills in transfiguration proved useful for someone of her profession. She was also leaning towards the Dark Arts. But despite this leaning towards the Dark Arts, which was somewhat defining for Sakura, the house tended to keep out of the quarrels between Black Lotus and Shiratatsu. At times they, or some members, would side with the Black Lotus, then later some would side with Shiratatsu. Their loyalties were primarily to themselves and those connected to them one way or the other. Clan politics usually had no room in Sakura either.

Thus during her few years at Shirasagi Mayumi learned more than just magic. She learned how the system worked, how the clans maintained power and control, how said system was really extremely outdated. But she also learned that getting too involved wasn’t a smart thing to do.

Then came a day when her older cousin Rika went to Great Britain with her mother. It was a surprise and Mayumi wasn’t too fond of it. But of course, she was way too young to be of any importance in such topics. It was that day, however, that would shape the future development of her own family.

As Mayumi returned to normal school life at Shirasagi with all its ups and downs things slowly started to change. Rika returned, then left the Hojo to bring back her father’s family and tensions started to rise between Mayumi’s cousins. It took a few years for her to grow more into this situation and for the issues themselves to grow as well. Ultimately Rika abandoned the Hojo family, as some people among the Hojo would say (some would even talk of treason), brought back the Nikaidô, changed her name to Sayoko and somehow that drove a wedge between the cousins. Worse yet, Mayumi’s other cousin Hanako was scheduled to marry into the Fujiwara family which propelled Mayumi up to being the second in the line of succession, a place she didn’t really want.

She had been content with the way things used to be and now she was suddenly important. With that came new issues. Shiori was head of the family and would very likely stay there. She would eventually produce offspring and from there that line of the family would be fine. For Mayumi, however, that meant that, on one hand, her training to replace Shiori in times of need would be improved. But on the other hand it also turned her into a tool for politics.

Thus, when Sayoko began her quest of returning the Nikaidô to their former glory, abandoned the Hojo and thus also stopped being the second in the line of succession, and when Hanako fell out of the equation due to marriage plans, Mayumi’s world was completely turned upside down.

Yes, she was happy for both Sayoko and Hanako, but the consequences for herself were hardly amusing. All the years in Sakura were taking their toll. She didn’t want any of it. And just when she thought that things couldn’t get any worse Sayoko basically walked out on Shiori during a session of the old council in Osaka. Mayumi didn’t know much about the details, most of it was kept from her thanks to her parents, who were now very busy with kissing up to Shiori. Thanks to a fellow student Mayumi found out eventually and was quite dumbstruck. But even that wasn’t the worst thing.

The lack of Nikaidô support for her revolutionary ideas had brought Shiori to the edge of radical ideas. Political marriage had always been common among the old clans in Japan’s wizarding world and many people were already speculating about the marriage between the leader of the Fujiwara and Mayumi’s cousin Hanako. Certainly, it smelled a lot like an attempt to fortify an alliance. And thus Shiori decided that negotiations with the Tokugawa were in order to fortify that alliance as well. The tool for it: Mayumi, even though she was still a minor.

Mayumi wouldn’t have any of it. It led to the next scandal, that of her running away and eventually seeking sanctuary with her cousin Sayoko up north on cold Hokkaido.

The request for sanctuary was granted by Sayoko and that left the Nikaidô with a slight problem. Mayumi couldn’t return to Shirasagi. There was a good chance that the Hojo would simply snatch her and bring her back to Kamakura and, very likely, marry her off to the old Tokugawa. Thus Sayoko decided that Mayumi would come with her to Great Britain, since she still had some unfinished business there. Mayumi would enter Hogwarts and finish her education there, that was the plan. Of course it was impossible to do all that with Mayumi’s real papers, so the Nikaidô went to great lengths setting up a fake background story with all the necessary paperwork. It was doable, but it was hardly cheap. And the background story itself was hardly original either. Hojo Masako? William Adams? Really?

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NAME: AK
EXPERIENCE: I started when most of you were still in diapers.
HOW'D YOU FIND US? I've always been here

CHARACTERS: Nikaidô Sayoko, James Blackwold


ANYTHING ELSE?Mayumi is a Hojo, that means she’s a gotoku neko. She is, however, not yet fully trained and thus not as powerful as people like her grandfather or her cousin Shiori. It is important to note that gotoku neko, who are as used to infiltrating human societies as the Hojo and many other clans are, often see their human form as their natural form. They barely ever shift into their real natural form and are very aware of not doing so accidentally. Discipline and control are what they all seek for. As for Mayumi, she shifted into human form shortly after her birth. She began shifting very early and was basically a full animagus (aka shifting into their third form, cat form) at the age of eleven. The family registered her as animagus simply because Mayumi has way too much fun with the cat form. It is not unheard among gotoku neko families to do exactly that.