Kazumi Nakamura was the only daughter of an ancient Inkling clan of some repute, raised in a staunchly conservative home in Calamari County. Having been denied sons, Kazumi's parents took out their frustrations on their daughter. They deprived her of affection and groomed her only to take a husband who could inherit the family title as soon as possible. What they could not have possibly accounted for was Kazumi falling for a western squid and having his child out of wedlock. Kazumi was considered to have brought dishonor to the clan, and was quickly disowned.

Family Life

Kazumi's husband was an adventurer at heart, and seeking his fortune meant rarely being home (or having money). With newborn Alexander to feed, and largely ostracized by her extended family, Kazumi had no choice but to finish her education and become the sole provider. Her career choice as Guidance Counselor was largely one of convenience at first. It paid well, there was little competition, and job sites usually provided generous benefits and free childcare. But she quickly took a liking to the independence afforded to her as the breadwinner, and did not hesitate to prioritize her career over any proper bonding with her son.

Her job, largely dealing with troubled youth, turned the already straitlaced Kazumi into a downright authoritarian. Every day, Kazumi saw more of her useless husband in Alex, and it was infuriating...so in order to prevent this from happening, she brought her authoritarian streak home and took control of Alex's life. Everything from the clothes he wore to the friends he kept to the books he read were in Kazumi's hands, and hers only. Alex didn't have the backbone to object. Kazumi made sure of that.

Then, one day, a note from Grizzco Industries informed Kazumi that her husband had drowned during a particularly hazardous Salmon Run, and his respawner had failed. He never came back. Kazumi did not appear to be terribly dismayed by this news at first glance. Alex, however, found that Kazumi's discipline crossed the line into abusive after that. She also hysterically emphatically forbid Alex from ever, ever so much as stepping foot into Grizzco.

Quirks?

Kazumi, determined to shape her son's fate by any means necessary, can and will apply for a job at whichever school he is attending at any given time. She's built up quite a resume because of this, and has an incredibly high success record as a guidance counselor (in part because she terrifies her charges or breaks them into submission emotionally).

Though she is hardly a fountain of charisma, she is attractive enough that some co-workers (and a few students) think of her as a 'sexy teacher'. She will only indulge this absurd fantasy if it's needed to ingratiate herself to a superior.

Though she was a rebel in youth, Kazumi ultimately inherited the Nakamura clan's disdain for 'social deviants'. She is repulsed by LGBTQ+ people, her cursory understanding of them ending somewhere between the B and the T. She is oddly progressive about gender roles however, respecting a woman who puts career over family and often roping in her son to help with the household chores. However, she won't allow him to cook—not because she doesn't trust Alex, but because she doesn't want him to become self-sufficient until she allows it.