i break .    there are fault lines in my bones and broken - glass fragments in my veins .    my heart beats a staggered stutter ,  too - fast then too - slow ;  my knees lurch to the ground more often than they stand .    you breathe life into me ,  and my lungs cough up smoke in reply  ...  i shatter .    i crumble .    i break .    oh ,  but i am still standing ,  aren’t i ?   my feet are still bound to this earth .    my eyes are still drawn to the sun .    my fingers are still clawing at the dirt            
                 i break ,  but darling ,     that doesn’t mean i’m broken   

koharu's sharp,  wide eyes are significantly more expressive than her expressions themselves .    under thick lashes ,  bright limbal rings frame her irises in a lighter shade of the bright and vibrant sea green that makes up the base color .    her skin is incredibly fair ,  near white ,  and decorated with cream - colored scales .upon closer look ,  koharu’s skin is littered with thin scars from training and other combat .    during her first encounter with zenos yae galvus in ala mhigo ,  she sustained a wound from his final strike before his departure that left major scarring diagonally from her right collar bone ,  down between her breasts ,  lower ribcage ,  and ultimately ending at the top of her left hip .    after the events of shadowbringers ,  koharu's naturally creamy scales become a stark white with thin gold cracks running through them .    despite her petite size ,  koharu’s physique is particularly toned from years of training .    with her focus being primarily on the sword ,  muscle definition is particularly noticeable in her arms and abdomen .her hair is naturally made up of various shades of pink ,  primarily in lighter / pastel shades that evoke the color of cherry blossoms .    upon closer look ,  the shades range from highlights almost as light as white ,  all the way to lowlights as deep as magenta .    it is thick ,  wavy ,  and layered ,  though she has no fringe .    its length and style varies through the events of msq .    its length through a realm reborn and heavensward reaches a little below her lower back ,  and though it doesn't change for the most part between a realm reborn and heavensward ,  she does begin tying part of it back to better keep it out of her face .    by the events of stormblood ,  even done up in a ponytail it reaches to her mid - thigh until she cuts it after the events of patch 4.3  ( under the moonlight ) .    once cut ,  she has a side - swept fringe and the entire length sits just under her chin .    she left one lock uncut which she braids and wraps around her head in a headband - like fashion .after the events in the level 77 dungeon ,  malikah's well ,  koharu's hair turns a luminescent white .    she maintains its short length until the events of the level 79 trial ,  crown of the immaculate ,  when her hair rapidly regrows to the length it was prior to cutting it ,  choosing instead to keep its length .after the events of the level 89 trial ,  the mothercrystal ,  koharu's hair returns to its natural pink .    following the conclusion of 6.0 ,  she once again cuts it short .
   
   

koharu undergoes a great many changes over the span of her life and time in eorzea as she grows as a person and ,  as much of her story revolves around that personal growth and how the journey affects and contributes to it rather than the journey itself ,  it is difficult to define as a whole .as a child ,  she was bright and full of energy .    koharu was easily excitable and had a quick ,  fiery temper to match .    she was cheerful and affectionate and had a cheeky side to her .    as she grew ,  though much remained the same ,  she became more restrained .    though still cheerful and cheeky ,  she had settled down and put a leash on her temper .she remained this way for much of her time prior to leaving doma .    only when visions of its destruction began to plague her mind did a larger change begin .    she became more anxious ,  the visions making her paranoid and fearful .    as the visions became more frequent ,  so too did she become less animated ,  her once bright light locked tight behind her unease .when she left ,  she buried her heart deep within .    the woman who arrived on eorzea’s shores was barely more than a shell of who she had been and went through many of the motions of her new daily life with apathy ,  keeping to herself ,  rarely reaching out to those who crossed her path .    much of her motivation was linked to obligation and a deep ,  desperate desire to redeem herself ,  though also holding the belief that there would never be enough good that she could do to make up for her cowardice .too wrapped up in herself and her sorrows and too closed off to make real connections ,  it took a great deal of time and the support of her eorzean peers and comrades in arms to bring light back to her world .    once she began to see her own worth again ,  her fire returned .    though she had become much more quiet and withdrawn in the early stages of her adventures and this reticence became a core part of her ,  she was more prone to showing pieces of her youthful animation .    smiles came more frequent and every so often cheeky remarks would slip from her lips .    rather than going through the motions because she felt she had to ,  she returned to doing what was right because it was right .

                       known classes                       

• sam
• geo
• drk
• btn
• alc

                       THE ECHO                       

        ( these abilities will not be used without consent or having plotted its use with my partner beforehand . )            the echo is a rare gift granted by the mothercrystal ,  hydaelyn ,  in the years before an umbral calamity is to occur .    though not much is actually known about the echo ,  it is believed by certain parties that the ability is untapped and ,  should it be properly harnessed ,  may even allow the gifted to transcend mortality .the echo has shown that it can manifest differently within each individual who possesses it ,  though each person gifted shares a common protection against being  ‘ tempered ’ ,  or ,  enslaved by the will of primals .    in some rarer cases ,  the echo may even grant the individual the ability to communicate with the mothercrystal herself .koharu’s echo - related abilities ,  being the warrior of light ,  are abundant .    in addition to protection from being tempered ,  the echo has given her the ability to understand and be understood in any and all spoken languages ,  including those of the beastmen tribes .    additionally ,  she has the ability to tap into an individual’s memories and see scenes in their past .in a similar vein ,  the echo also gives koharu a degree of foresight .    within the game universe ,  this is explained by area of effect  ( aoe )  markers — giving her the ability to see an enemy's attack before it occurs and react quicker to avoid them — and restarting a duty after a death — a vision of a possible outcome ,  with the successful duty completion being the  ' true ' / ' real '  turn of events .    on rare occasions ,  it shows her snippets of the distant future ;  this is how she saw the outcome of the doman rebellion years before the rebellion would officially take place and its outcome decided .although her abilities to see into both past and future might seem convenient ,  these abilities are not actually something she is fully in control of ,  often triggering their its own ,  and usually requiring her to be either in proximity of the  ( past or future )  event or the individual whose past she is seeing into ,  or be in a location the individual has visited previously .
   
   
                                                  THE ECHO                       
on rare occasions ,  hydaelyn may attempt to make contact with those who she has blessed with the echo .    for some ,  she may try to speak to them directly ;  others may receive visions. for others still ,  she may yet go the extra mile and bestow them with enhanced senses or barriers to protect them from strong magical attacks .in koharu’s case ,  she saw various visions after the echo awoke in her .    these visions ,  seemingly out of nowhere and with no context ,  showed her the future — the tragic outcome of the rebellion the doman liberation front had been planning for a decade — and were the instigation for her absconding .only once koharu arrives in eorzea does hydaelyn speak directly to her and utilize the echo to call her to the aetherial plane to communicate directly with the mothercrystal .    after she begins obtaining crystals of light and koharu’s worth as her champion is proven does hydaelyn provide further shielding to her chosen warrior of light .

   
* & history ,

after a particularly long and brutal winter that left snow still on the ground all through doma in the early days of the second umbral moon ,  the spring of 1548 could hardly be considered spring at all .    it was on the seventh sun ,  when the cries of a newborn babe rang out in the town of monzen as the only daughter of the proud head of the doman branch of the hingan - famous buhen clan was born ,  that the country finally began to feel the sun’s warmth .    tiny ,  even for an au ra child ,  and already sporting a thick layer of pink locks ,  koharu was aptly named for both her appearance as well as the warmth she brought with her birth and into her family’s hearts .koharu was only four when the lord of doma surrendered to the tyranny of the garlean empire and the country fell under imperial rule in 1552 .    as one of the leading factions of doma’s armies in its defense ,  the buhen clan had several prominent members made examples of in the days leading up to and shortly after the country’s fall . though many lower - ranking samurai and their able - bodied family members were conscripted into garlemald’s armies and scattered across garlean territories ,  koharu’s own family ,  who served directly under lord kaien himself before the fall ,  was for the most part left whole so as to keep the peace in the newly conquered territory .