Tamura Dusk (Completed and prepared for evaluation)

Abandoned at a young age, Tamura never knew her biological parents, not has she ever considered them to be her real parents. She grew up in an orphanage, and grew accustomed to having 10 brothers and sisters to rely on, all of which had a good idea of how one another was feeling at any given time. This empathy made her stronger in a way, but all the weaker when any of them had to say goodbye.

That was the idea anyway, but Tamura only ever said goodbye once. She was one of the first to be adopted after she arrived at the orphanage. Maybe because she was a girl? Because she was younger? Not that it really mattered at the time, but she wonders about it now. This was a goodbye that she'd remember forever, a goodbye which marked the point she would go from a naive young girl to a future soldier.

This turning point in her future seemed to be a blessing at first. A rich, young aristocrat and his son adopting a poor little orphan girl to give her a family. It seemed like something out of a fairy tale, but in reality, this couldn't have been further from the truth. Slavery, being illegal in Remnant for the past 80 years, was still prevalent to those that could find ways to get around the system. One such loophole, was by claiming one as a child. Tamura was forced to cook and clean as she was abused by the man she once thought would be a kind and loving father to her. She was young, but not completely alone.

Her brother was young as well, far to young to understand why her "sister" was so mistreated. She'd found a friend in this young boy, someone to lean on in her harsh reality. They played, as children often do, whenever she was able and whenever her father was not around. Tamura was not simply satisfied with this, however, and as she grew older and matured, so too did her ambitions.

Despite her lack of communication with the outside world, she was able to learn enough to understand how it worked with the help of her brother. Tamura learned about the past, the Great War, Huntsman, Grimm, and everything in between from passed down textbooks from her brother. The two of them shared an aspiration to become huntsmen, and become stronger, though Tamura doubted if her reasoning was quite the same. She wanted the strength to not be hurt anymore, to not be weak. Her brother saw her and wanted to help anyone that needed him to. Her brother went to combat school, and she learned from him whenever he would come home.

She wasn't able to craft a weapon like her brother was learning to, so she learned to defend herself with her bare hands, as well as wielding a stick in place of a sword. But as her brother grew, she seemed to stop at some point. He became stronger, and taller, while Tamura maintained a short and lithe figure, so she made compromises to how she would fight. She learned martial skill, technique, and cunning over raw force, taking advantage of her small frame to be harder to make contact with, while strengthening her mental resolve throughout her years as a servant. This wouldn't change the outcome of the day when their father learned about their training sessions. Admittedly, the man was furious, not at his son but blamed Tamura for tricking him into doing her bidding. For this, she spent a week locked in a small basement closet, given food every few days so that she wouldn't die and a bucket for "other reasons". She was different when she came out, much more quiet, yet unwilling to be tied down for very long.

Tamura and her brother slowly began to gain confidence in their own abilities, and the brash spirit of his personality convinced her to steal a sword from her father's collection and go to the Finnek Forest to test their mettle against the Grimm. They did that, and they found a fight with relative ease. At first it seemed like just a few Beowolves, but something betrayed them. Tamura still felt weak, she still felt afraid, and that led to the number of Grimm becoming too much to handle. For a pair of kids, who'd just barely had their aura unlocked, they put up a decent fight, but her bigger and heavier brother couldn't avoid damage forever. He was overrun, and fell there in the forest, completely alone as Tamura fled at the sight of her brother's demise. She ran through the trees throughout the night, until she felt safe, or as safe as she could feel.

Tamura was alone there, with nothing more than a set of rags for clothing and a small sword on her person. She was horrified of what would happen if she came back, that was no longer an option. She was stuck now, she was lost,
Some in this position might have gotten strength in the form of a will to live, to survive and adapt, but she was different. She didn't just have a will to live, but she was too afraid to die. She was scared day and night as she did whatever she could to survive in that forest, and she felt haunted by the memory of watching her brother fall.
For a full year, she did not speak. She survived, adapted, reflected, and matured even further. Fighting the Grimm,
and hunting for food became second-nature as she had no other way to live. Tamura learned to operate on instinct,
but learned more about her reflections of the past.

She felt like she was trapped in stasis for that year, not moving forward and forever looking back. But she never stopped training, and at the end of the line, she spoke again. Not as just Tamura Dawn, but adopting the middle name Isaiah, in memory of her brother. She adopted his spirit, his will, and his goals, so that the death she caused would not be in vain. Her first words after that year, "Let's move on shall we?" reflected her desire to live as two,
not just one.

Her aspirations had not changed, and she was glad to see that she'd been long forgotten in Bellmuse. Her past became an enigma to the world around her, and she applied to Syne to carry out their twin aspirations, and to make up for lost time.

The fire was low, merely embers at this point. This wouldn't do, not at all. Tamura sighed as she stoked the flames to try to coax just a bit more heat from them, but every effort just seemed to be yet another exercise in futility. She grimaced.

"......."

Today... This was stupid. Between the rain making a fire impossible and her snare snapping, killing this deer was proving to be much more effort than it was worth. She'd burned way too many calories trying to sneak up on the thing so that she could kill it with her blade, so not being able to earn them back was just salt in the wound for her failure in making the trap properly.

A rustle in the bushes had her holding her blade up, prepared for a fight now. Tamura stared for a long time, before tapping the blade against her elbow as she dropped her guard, and lowered her reversed grip into a more relaxed one.

Why was she still out here even? What was the point? What was she proving? She felt more alone now than ever before, only because she knew that she didn't have to be anymore. Yet, there was still that little voice telling her that she was a fool for staying here any longer.

Her own? Just barely. But still, she chose not to listen until now. Was something else pushing her?

"......."

Not exactly true. In fact, that voice wasn't always hers. She claimed it now, knowing that she was responsible for making it her own. She took a sharp inhale of the cold forest air, as she clutched at her chest. Looking around as she felt as though she'd just woken from a dream, and falling backwards as she tried to catch her breath.

She came to a realization now, that after so much time alone that only she had control now, but she'd still lost it. It was maddening, embarrassing, and altogether sloppy for her to find herself like this. So... Why was she still out here?

Her lips curled, and her tongue slowly drifted into place as she processed the one thought she had right now, seemingly dodging a question she'd posed to herself, and herself alone.

".... Let's.... move on... Shall we?"