Kasimira

1. Every squad member has the right to participate in major internal decisions and vote on them. Majority rules. In the event of a tie, the captain's vote counts as two.
2. Every squad member has the equal right to the spoils. Stealing from comrades or concealing loot is deemed as acts of betrayal.
3. The individual who contributes the most during a mission will be rewarded with one day of exclusive access to the game room.
4. White Cat members are prohibited from gambling. First-time offenders will be given an internal warning and will need to submit a statement of reflection. Repeat offenders will be expelled from the squad.

The White Cat Troupe provides services including mission escort, security, hostage rescue, wild monster extermination, and special Monolith investigations. We take commission that range from half a day to three months, with fees ranging from 8,000 to hundreds of thousands of Dorra. For details, please consult the troupe's office. The White Cat Troupe is dedicated to providing you with the highest level of service!

If you need to find me in a hurry, you can go to the bookstore in Mirage and try asking its owner. Contact? No. It's just that I often buy fashion magazines there. The owner there knows me as a regular customer. If you're lucky and find me there in person, I can even give you a fortune reading for the day. Tearing up magazines? No way. Well, in a way, I guess. We don't keep a lot of worldly possessions. It's pointless for me to have piles of old magazines around. So I use them to do origami to amuse everyone in between commissions. Would you like one? —From a certain audio recording.

We have noticed that Kasimira's close-quarters combat techniques seem to show traces of Loong martial arts influence. However, according to herself, she has never crossed path with the Loong—at least, that's what she believes. She says that she learned her close-quarters combat techniques from the former leader of the White Cat Troupe. I speculate that, if we trace back far enough, there might be a link between the White Cat Troupe and a Loong. But as to the specifics, we remain in the dark. —Willow

Everyone in the Third Squad loves playing games! Cool, right? Jealous, aren't you? Hah— Wait, what? It's an open secret? Ugh, that's no fun. Of course, Kasimira plays, too. She plays far less than Lanzia-chan and I do. She's always going on about how, as the captain, she must lead by example and not indulge too much. Ugh, it's so annoying. When we all play together, she really enjoys it, too. So why the pretense? There's a secret I want to tell you—Kasimira has a spare controller that's gathering dust. It's in perfect working condition and looks great, but she will not use it. Every time I ask to borrow it, she turns me down. As far as I know, only Lanzia-chan has managed to ever borrow it, and it was just the once. Ah, Boss, I have a thought—If you ask her for it, she might lend it to you. Why not give it a try? —Chaton

In her professional capacity, Kasimira is a diligent and responsible captain. On the personal relationship front, she still owes me something. This is an entirely objective assessment. —Lanzia

"Kasimira... I think she really likes hearing all the gossip," said a Troupe member who was working as a makeup artist at the time. "Last time, Reiran and I were speculating if Nana was having yet another fight with her boyfriend. Captain happened to walk by us and, out of the blue, she said that this time they'd really called it quits. It was scary." "All this time we thought she was the kind who didn't care about what went on around her, but she's been paying attention, hasn't she?" "But for some reason, whenever we try to have a chat with her, she always finds an excuse to wiggle out of it. Kasi can be real sly when it comes to that." "Oh, a cat needs to be 'released.' I gotta run. Let's continue this conversation another time."

The troupe is called "White Cat" for a reason, because we live alongside a great many cats. Despite a reputation as heartless creatures, after spending enough time with people, cats do learn who always brings them food and whose touch feels best. Thus, if something happens and one of our member doesn't make it back, the first ones to be informed are their cats. This process is called "release." All White Cat Troupe mercenaries carry a special strap to communicate with their teammates during missions. If someone doesn't return, their teammates are responsible for recovering their weapon and strap, even if these items are no longer usable. Be it a piece of string or a scrap of cloth—they must be brought back. Because the remnants can tell the living the name and identity of the deceased.

These recovered scraps and fragments are placed together, and the cats are brought nearby. Cats have a keen sense of smell and great intuition, thus they will pick up the strap carrying the scent familiar to their "cohabiters." This tells everyone that someone who once shared a bond with that cat will never return. Most of the time, even after confirming their human's death, the cats will return to their normal routines. But sometimes there are a few truly loyal ones who take the straps and run off. They will not return no matter how much they are called. Maybe they've gone off to find the owner of that item. Who knows?

Can you imagine it? Someone who fed you just yesterday is now gone forever. You will never see them again. Can you imagine it? Someone who was chatting and laughing with you just yesterday will never smile or joke again.

People instinctively avoid confronting the hard truths, as if pretending they never happened will make them disappear. Feigning ignorance is a valuable survival skill, and those who excel at it can avoid a lot of unnecessary pain. But many people are not good at it, and Kasimira is one of them.

Friends? Just where are her friends? The children looked around but didn't see anyone else. Still, they accepted her explanation. "Then next time, we'll come ask you for one! Promise?"

Kasimira simply smiled. She placed the little boats into the water, watching as they floated away. One, two, three, four, five. It just so happened that five troupe members hadn't returned this time.

Kasimira is a woman of her word. The following afternoon, she brought a stack of paper to the kids. But this time, instead of folding boats, she made paper cranes. "We don't want Paper cranes. Paper boats can float on water, but paper cranes can't fly!" "How about this then?" With a few deft movements, the paper transformed into a delicate paper airplane in her hands. "What's this?" "According to the Monolith's promotional flyer, an 'autonomous aerodynamic model.' But we usually just call it a paper airplane." Kasimira blew gently on the paper airplane's tip and threw it. It wobbled into the air. "Paper airplanes can fly! Paper airplanes are great!" Each kid received a paper airplane and ran off with the loot. That afternoon, colorful paper airplanes soared under the bright blue sky by the stream. But there was a clumsy one who threw her paper airplane into the river by mistake. She asked Kasimira for a replacement: "Kasi, look, when a paper airplane falls into the river, it floats on the water, too. So it's like, in that moment, it also became a paper boat."

"It's not the same thing," said Kasimira. "A paper boat is a paper boat. A paper airplane is a paper airplane. How can you mix them up?" "Then what's the difference between them? Kasi, tell me!" "A paper boat can only drift with the current to a place it doesn't know. Eventually it will sink at an unknown place, never to be remembered again. The journeys of the living and the dead are fundamentally different. The journey of the dead ends in remembrance, closure, and eventually becoming forgotten. Whereas paper airplanes—and really, you girls—are meant to soar.

Not to sink slowly into murky waters, but to soar far and high into the vast and clear blue sky." "In that case, Kasi, can you fold us birds or butterflies? Those are things that can fly, too!" This was the only thing Kasimira, as a Watcher, could do for them. "Sure can. Promise me that you will fly far away, just like them."

"I need to do something," As she gazed at the brilliant sunset reflected in the water, her hands still folding the papers, Kasimira thought to herself. "I'll talk to the other captains again and keep those reserve kids from going on missions just a bit longer."

"Very Lucky." That's what the newspaper's daily fortune draw read. Surely something good was bound to happen today! Thus did Kasimira make the mistake of equating "Very Lucky" with "today is a good day to take on a mission inside the Monolith." Until she reached the base of the Monolith, patted her waist, and realized "Wait a second—where's my shotgun?" This is bad, this is so, so bad. Not only had she lost the tool of her trade, even more importantly, the shotgun—specially modified by the White Cat Troupe—was more important than her life itself! When veterans retired, their weapons were passed down to the new generation. These weapons carried the knowledge, memories, and skills of their previous owners. Any mercenary aspiring to leave their mark treated their weapon with utmost care, hoping it would become part of their legacy, passed down forever. "You're the most promising rookie of your class, so I'm entrusting my shotgun to you. It's called Catnip-1886. Remember its name and treat it well." Although all the Troupe's weapons were named after cat-related things, Kasimira couldn't figure out why this particular shotgun was called Catnip. But since her predecessor had made a point of this, the name remained.

And now, barely one week into her career as a mercenary, the "most promising rookie" had no idea where she'd left her shotgun. What a disaster! After thinking over where she might have left it, Kasimira came to an even more terrible realization: The park, the shopping street, the magazine shop, the snack stall—all of them swarming with civilians. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse! What if some clueless civilian innocently picked it up?

There was nothing for it. She had to retrace her steps from that morning and search for the weapon. While nobody in Mirage would bother to report the White Cat Troupe's weapons as illegal items, inside this chaotic desert city, once something got lost, it stayed that way until you "buy it back." Kasimira had already prepared for the worst scenario: If she couldn't recover the weapon, she would have to borrow a lot of money from her colleagues, get an advance for several months' worth of pay, and get a new shotgun made.

She hit the jackpot at the second place she visited.

"A strange-looking staff? Yeah, I saw it. I didn't put it away, it's on the bench outside." On the bench outside? Kasimira replayed the scene outside in her mind. There were a lot of cats playing with each near the door. "Oh... I know what happened. Come with me." Kasimira followed the owner outside and watched as he dug into the pile of cats, eventually pulling out a shotgun. "You know how it is. Cats love playing with things they've never seen before. You left staff here, and for some reason, all the stray cats in the area came running. They really have a thing for it."

What's going on? Kasimira sat down inside the shop and disassembled the shotgun that was still new to her. She discovered that its magazine was loaded with not bullets but a bundle of slightly withered catnip leaves. Ah, so that's why it's called "Catnip." Turns out it had this little trick mechanism. It's impossible to know whether this was her predecessor's own preference or some sort of prank. As she sat on the bench, cats climbed all over her in search of the scent. Kasimira didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A Very Lucky day, indeed.