Yukiko

Personality: Calm, level-headed, thoughtful, observant

Background: A secret agent kitty descended from an ancient royal family. On special occasions she gets to work with Sapphira when her mysterious unnamed boss sends her out to work in Aldora. The two spider friends still meet each other for coffee though. 

Up in the isolated Northern Mountains Yukiko lives a double life as an elite spy. To the public eye she's a prim, well put together noble working to support her frigid community. In secret, she runs reconnaissance missions and gathers incriminating evidence in service of a mysterious unnamed benefactor. As a noble, Yukiko uses her status to build bridges and develop her social circle. As a spy, she thwarts attacks against her house and sends foes on wild goose chases into political traps and dead ends. She often wonders who her patron is but tries not to worry about it since they appear to share similar goals. As long as her partner doesn't reveal her safeguarded secrets, she's happy to receive unaddressed letters with further instructions.

Yukiko did not always live a double life. As a younger cat she would only act in service of her house, attending social events, entertaining suitors, and working on simple community enhancement projects. Everything changed one night when a terrible accident occurred, changing Yukiko's life forever. Following the event, the young girl found herself captured by an enemy house from a neighboring City. She spent days in the hidden dungeon of their estate, quietly pondering how long it would take for her parents to pay her ransom. That was until a note was slipped through the meal slot of her cell door. The front side read: "I know what you did" and was sealed in ink. Yukiko could feel her stomach drop as she continued reading. "You're in imminent danger here. I offer you salvation and freedom from your cell. In exchange, you'll work for me until your debt is repaid. Signed, A Friend." Yukiko stared at the note for a short while before finding a piece of charcoal to scrawl her acceptance of the terms. To her amazement, the note vanished in a flash afterward. A short while later she could hear a commotion outside her cell door. The sound of other mothcats being tossed across the room echoed in the cold stone chamber. When the dust settled, her door swung open and a cloaked individual stood there, motioning for her to follow them. After escaping the dungeon and estate she returned to her home and reunited with her family. Her rescuer disappearing without a word or a look at their face.

Her first orders arrived a week later in the form of another ink-sealed letter.

As agent “Frostbite,” Yukiko’s first official mission was to attend the upcoming Mayor’s Donation Gala and find an opportunity to acquire information about the Mayor’s spending habits and whether or not anything looked out of the ordinary. If she was successful, the evidence was to be planted in the hollow of a dead tree stump near the outskirts of her village’s main square. At the party, Yukiko engaged with her fellow noble-folk, ate her fill of Hors d'oeuvres, and found ample opportunity to slip away from the party when excusing herself to the restroom.

Yukiko crept down the hall to the Mayor’s office with the deft grace of her pet tarantula. She opened the door to the private office without making a sound and swiftly descended on the Mayor’s desk drawers. As she rifled through the documents in the desk, she remembered a lesson about municipality budgets her father had tried to teach her. If there was anything suspicious to be found, she should start there. In a manilla folder she found what she was looking for: dated itemized annual budget reports and a small handwritten note about diverting funds to an unlisted account. She took a quick glance at the projected budget and compared it to the actual amounts. Sure enough, the budget for community development was severely undercut in its actual expenditure total. Satisfied, Yukiko slipped the documents beneath the covers of her beetle wings and returned to the party to maintain her ruse.

One week after depositing the documents in the deteriorating tree trunk Yukiko receives another ink-sealed note.