Masako Togawa

Bio

AKA: The loud one

Status: Alive

Birthday: 23 March

Age: 24, 16 (left Tokyo)

Height: 172cm (5 ft 6)

Weight: 57kg (127 lbs)

Blood type: B

Likes: Music, cocktails, gossip, gyuutan

Dislikes: Spicy food, boredom

Ability: The Master Key

Ability namesake: The Master Key

Job: Researcher

Affiliation: Paulownia Court (Tsukishinkai-ya)

Appearance

Togawa is a woman of slightly above average height with short dyed pink and mint hair, and mint eyes. She has freckles all over her skin.

Normally, she wears a lilac floral button-up over a colourful skin-tight sheer top, with white trousers and blush pink flats. Her hair is pushed back with a purple floral headband. She wears several necklaces, bracelets and rings, and colourful makeup. 

When working, she wears a loose white sleeveless blouse and tight black trousers with black heeled pumps. On a ring on her right index finger, she wears a black and gold ring that serves as her link on top of black opera gloves with the Paulownia Court symbol at the top. Her hair is slicked back, out of her face, showing off pearl earrings, matching a string of pearls around her neck. She wears dark, smokey eyeshadow and burgundy lipstick.

Personality

Togawa is a bright and cheerful woman who takes great pride in herself and her abilities. Having grown up surrounded by wealth, she still speaks carefreely of social issues (poverty, social injustice), which irritates those around her. She does make an effort to correct this, however it is at times futile. 

Despite her sheltered upbringing, she is still incredibly well-read and excels in social situations, due to attending many galas and events throughout her life. Her quick thinking and adaptability are a result of this, as well as her ability to quickly read people with a high degree of accuracy. She is, however, somewhat arrogant, seeing others as beneath her at times. In her upbringing she was taught to value herself over others, and while she has since become much more selfless, she will often default to thinking solely of herself. 

Unlike Nakai, who enjoys taunting and chasing in a fight, Togawa prefers to take a much more efficient approach to her work, using her ability to trap someone quickly and prevent any escapes. She acts directly much better, thriving in more social roles where she can gather intel quickly, and thus takes charge of undercover operations more often. She takes a more forward role in missions, getting to the heart of the action rather than sitting back, although she rarely fights. 

Having grown a lot since she was first accepted into the Tsukishinkai-ya, she has become less haughty and stuck-up, and is generally very bubbly and open, even when she shouldn’t be. Togawa tends to see the better in things, often clinging to the hope that people will do the right thing. This does not mean to say that she is blind to the actions of others, merely that she will often make excuses for others in her mind so as to not break the image she has of them in her head. Her desensitisation to the attitudes of high society as a nature of her upbringing make it difficult at times to see the negatives in them, however she stands firm in her ability to defend any injustice that goes against her personally, or those she has vowed to love.

Ability

Name: The Master Key (大いなる幻影)

Allows the user to lock or unlock anything by touching it, including doors, electronics, safes, etc. This ability can also override other abilities that close off a space, such as Nakai’s ‘Offering to the Void’, or even Katai’s ‘Futon’ if she is touching a computer he is controlling, however this may (in certain cases) cause a singularity.

Access and Occlusion

Skills

• Specialised knowledge
  • Togawa is extremely knowledgeable about how abilities function, allowing her to figure out their weaknesses by watching them only once or twice. 
  • She is also skilled at working out how abilities interact with each other, allowing her to figure out optimal matchups for and against certain abilities. 
• Charisma
  • Togawa is extremely charismatic and excels in social/undercover situations. Despite not having a social ability, she can easily get people to open up to her, and is capable of subtle manipulation to trap her opponents without fighting them.
• Singing
  • Togawa is as good as a professional singer, and enjoys music greatly. She has, in the past, worked as a singer, and uses her talent to pose as a musician sometimes, as to not be recognised.
• Blade proficiency
  • Togawa is better with short-range combat, and is capable of using all manner of knives and other blades to fight. 
• Singularity creation
  • When combined with Hideo Nakai, the two of them are capable of creating a controlled singularity within their abilities, although the effects of this on anyone within the singularity are severe.

Background

Born to a wealthy family in Tokyo, Togawa grew up a socialite, around powerful, rich and influential people. She was sheltered as a child, only learning about the rest of the world through a maid who brought her books and newspapers. The maid was fired when Togawa was thirteen, after her parents learnt what was happening, however Togawa was old and smart enough by then to search on her own. She did this until she was fifteen, when she had a fight with her parents concerning their plans for her future, and ran away soon after. Not knowing where to go, she bounced around for several months working odd jobs until she met Seichou while singing in a bar in Yokohama. He discovered that she was a runaway, and that she had an interest in his studies. Upon learning that she was a runaway, he offered to take her in, and consequently she joined him and Nakai.

Shortly after she turned eighteen and started university, she became an official member of the Paulownia Court, alongside Nakai. 

Timeline

• 24 years ago
  • 23 March: Togawa is born
• 11 years ago
  • The maid was fired
• 9 years ago
  • Got into a fight with parents about a potential omiai, causing her to run away
• 8 years ago
  • Met Seichou and Nakai
  • Was taken in
  • Started high school
• 6 years ago
  • Graduated high school
  • Officially joined Paulownia Court
• 4 years ago
  • Dated Dazai 
• 3 years ago
  • Dated Chuuya

Etymology

To (戸): Door

Gawa (川): River

Masa (昌): Prosperous

Ko (子): Child

Namesake

Masako Togawa (戸川昌子)

Japanese novelist, actress, femenist, LGBTQ+ community icon, former nightclub owner, metropolitan city planning panellist, music educator and Chanson singer. She won the Edogawa Ranpo prize in 1962 for ‘The Master Key’, alongside Sen Saga, beating Nakai Hideo’s ‘Offering To The Void’. 

Trivia

• Togawa and Nakai’s rivalry is surmised from their real-world standings in the 1962 Edogawa Ranpo prize. Togawa won the prize, alongside Sen Saga, as Nakai’s entry was seen as a joke entry by panellists due to being a part of the anti-mystery genre. 
• Togawa’s ability is named after the novel The Master Key (大いなる幻影), about an apartment building for women, where each resident has secrets connected to a master key that can open any apartment. 
  • The direct translation of the Japanese title ‘大いなる幻影’ is ‘Great Illusion’, however the English translation by Simon Grove uses ‘The Master Key’ as the title. This is not uncommon with translated works. 
• Togawa’s charisma and singing abilities are the same as her real-world counterpart, who was a chanson singer and owned a nightclub. It is said that she taught countless musicians how to sing and compose. 
  • The Blue Room (青い部屋), where Togawa was singing when Seichou first encountered her, is named after said nightclub.
• The real Togawa is noted to have been known for a multi-coloured ‘afro’ hairstyle, which has been translated into Togawa’s pink and mint hair.
• Despite being able to sing in 10 languages, she can only speak Japanese fluently. She is, however, proficient in English, French and Russian. 
• Seichou is legally her father, as he adopted Togawa in order to get her into high school. 
  • Nakai is also legally her brother
• She, like Nakai, tends to rise quite early- around 7 am- however she usually sleeps around 8 hours. She normally goes to bed around 11 pm, unless she is going out in the evening, in which case she goes to sleep as soon as she gets back. 

Relationships

Appellations

Hideo Nakai

Masako first met Hideo when she moved in with him and Seichou, joining them as a part-time helper in the Tsukishinkai. Since their first meeting, the two of them have butted heads on numerous occasions over various issues, big and small, however they also hold great respect for one another. Masako recognises Hideo’s talent and his passion and care in saving everyone, however disagrees with his fundamental principles, thinking he is too idealistic in thinking anyone is worthy of saving over oneself. They are close friends and roommates currently, as well as (legally) siblings, having both been adopted by Seichou. As such, they tend to behave much like siblings, both being protective of each other and defending one another to the very end.

Seichou Matsumoto

Masako first met Seichou during a shift at the Blue Room, where she was working as a singer and waitress. She would ask him questions about his work, which he often brought with him, and he would oblige in answering them. Eventually, he asked about her home life, as she often worked weekday shifts during school hours, leading her to reveal that she was a runaway, and had faked her age in order to work. Seichou offered to let her work part-time at the Tsukishinkai-ya and give her a room to stay, which she agreed to. He ended up taking her in permanently, adopting her in order for her to get into school. Over time, Togawa began to see Seichou as a parental figure, taking it upon herself to repay her mentor for everything he has done for her- no matter the cost. 

Yoko Ota

Togawa and Ota were introduced when she initially gained refuge via Seichou, however, Togawa was wary due to Ota’s nervousness and privacy about her past. When Nakai was unable to find anything concrete about her, save for rumours about a woman with black and white hair in Seventh Order, Togawa helped interrogate her. Unlike Seichou and Nakai, Togawa did not  apologise for how harsh she was when questioning her, however the two came to an agreement of mutual understanding, and decided to put the incident behind them. At present, Togawa likes to tease and joke with Ota, treating her much like a younger sister, and is not particularly wary of her.

Kouyou Ozaki

When Masako first met Kouyou, she was still dating Chuuya. However, shortly after this meeting, he broke up with her. Since then, Masako has taken to flirting with Kouyou. She enjoys spending time with Kouyou, and finds her to be an interesting conversation partner. They share a mutual bond of care for Kyouka as well, both aiming to look after her in their own ways. When Kyouka left for the light, Kouyou asked Togawa to ensure that Kyoka was happy- a task that Togawa is more than happy to uphold. At present, they are not dating, however they are both interested- just slightly dense.

Osamu Dazai

Dazai and Togawa first met via a dating app shortly after he went into hiding, and the two hit it off quickly. They dated for seven months, during which Dazai continually flirted with other people openly, which didn’t bother Togawa much as she retaliated in kind. However, when he accidentally called her ‘Slug’ one too many times, she slapped him and the two broke up after a short discussion the following day on somewhat amiable terms. Since then, they have grown to be friends and drinking buddies, with Togawa using their joint past to her advantage by guilt tripping and (occasionally) blackmailing Dazai. 

Nakahara Chuuya

After breaking up with Dazai, Togawa met Chuuya while he was visiting the Tsukishinkai-ya, and the two bonded over a love of expensive alcohol. They started dating after Chuuya asked her out, and were together for close to a year before Chuuya decided to break up with her due to lingering feelings for someone else. She appreciated his honesty and they broke up on amicable terms. They are still good friends, and often go shopping together and go to events with each other (provided Chuuya isn’t going with his current partner). He does, however, have mixed feelings about Togawa’s flirtations with other members of the Port Mafia, such as Kouyou or Higuchi. 

Kyoka Izumi

Before Kyoka left the mafia, she visited the Tsukishinkai-ya with Kouyou on several occasions. The first time, Togawa saw how nervous and scared Kyoka looked, and helped ease her nerves by offering some of her lunch to Kyoka. From then on, whenever Kyoka would visit, Togawa would share some food and a book with her, and let her keep the book when she went in order to return it the next time she came. After leaving the Port Mafia, Kyoka started to come to the Tsukishinkai-ya on her own more often, and Togawa began to use the time to teach Kyoka anything she wanted to learn. At present, Kyoka has become very good at ikebana, and is well versed in ghost stories. Her English, however, is still fairly abysmal.