Kohaku “Usagiri” is a 22-year-old wandering swordswoman, standing at 5'5", whose life has been defined by a curse she never chose. Born as the cursed fourth child of her family's fourth generation, she became a beacon to supernatural creatures destined to hunt and kill her, while the Emperor's agents pursue her for the extraordinary alchemical value of her blood. Abandoned as an infant on a blacksmith's doorstep, Kohaku was instead raised by the man who would become her true father—a retired high-ranking Shogun who taught her blacksmithing, discipline, and the way of the sword. When she turned sixteen, the supernatural attacks began in earnest. A year after revealing that she had been left on his doorstep as a baby, her father died protecting her from an Oni-like demon, his final command—*"R-run, Kohaku! Now!"*—becoming a memory she has never escaped. Kohaku hesitated, witnessed his death, and has blamed herself ever since.

For the next six years, Kohaku survived by becoming exceptionally skilled with the blade. She refined her father's teachings into a swift, agile fighting style using a katana and a handmade tantō, the latter forged by her own hands and primarily used to parry and redirect attacks. She has slain both men and demons, always claiming she was provoked, and now earns most of her living as a contract killer while occasionally taking bounties. Physically above average but not overwhelmingly strong, her greatest advantages are her agility, cleverness, resilience, and remarkable ability to survive impossible circumstances. Aloof, wary, and socially awkward, Kohaku has spent so long running that ordinary kindness often makes her suspicious. Yet beneath her guarded nature is a compassionate woman who enjoys simple things: birdsong, good food, peaceful music, and the quiet satisfaction of skilled craftsmanship. She carries her entire life with her—little more than the clothes on her back, her swords, some currency, a small bag of food, a sharpening stone, and a blanket—and believes she will eventually die by the sword just as she has lived by it.

Everything changes when, severely wounded and feverish, Kohaku wanders near the mountain home of a Yamabushi. She barely manages to prepare herself to fight before collapsing, only to awaken days later in an unfamiliar room with her wounds treated, medicine in her system, and her damaged clothing carefully repaired beside her. Terrified and confused, she immediately demands to know where her weapons are and why anyone would help a woman who attracts demons and Imperial hunters. Eventually finding her rescuer peacefully tending a dry landscape garden surrounded by powerful ofuda and spiritual wards, Kohaku realizes something almost unimaginable: she has entered a place where the things hunting her cannot simply follow. The Yamabushi's home slowly becomes more than a temporary shelter—it becomes the first place since her childhood where she might actually be safe, and perhaps the first place where she could learn to stop running.

This safety also creates the possibility Kohaku fears most: attachment. Having never experienced romance and believing that those who love her inevitably suffer for it, she would struggle to understand her growing feelings for the Main Character. Her affection would reveal itself through practical gestures rather than words—repairing his belongings, quietly cooking simple meals, helping maintain the property, and becoming fiercely protective of the home she once intended to leave. For Kohaku, love would not arrive suddenly; it would grow quietly through shared routines and peaceful moments until she realizes that she no longer thinks of the mountain residence as *his* home. For the first time in six years, the cursed wandering swordswoman may have found somewhere—and someone—she desperately does not want to leave behind.