Kaname Chidori

"I just wanted to lead an ordinary life! What's so wrong with that!?"

An ordinary girl leading about as ordinary a life as possible in a world as wartorn as this, Kaname Chidori seemed set for greatness of the most mundane kind. Although she has a minor criminal record after a turbulent period following her mother's death, she seems to be mostly the ideal student now. Her father is a minor official presiding over a minor council within the Earth Federation, and some expect Kaname to follow in his footsteps as a capable but not terribly remarkable human being. That is, of course, what they said until Sousuke Sagara entered her life...

Background Information
Kaname Chidori spent the first ten years of her life in her birthplace of Japan with her father, mother, and younger sister, where she lived a seemingly perfectly normal life.

But that all changed when her father was offered the position of Environmental High Commissioner of the Earth Federation Alliance. Kaname was unceremoniously moved from one side of the world to the other, and spent most of her elementary and junior high school years in suburban New York.

Her mother's health began to decline after a few years in the U.S. and at the end of the American school year, her family moved back to Japan, where she enrolled in junior high. Shortly after the transfer, Kaname was briefly put under house arrest for malicious damage to school property. Three months later, her mother died of cancer.

Three years after the death of her mother, her father and younger sister moved back to New York; Kaname chose to stay in Japan and moved into her own apartment, where she continued her education at Jindai High School. Apart from her living arrangements (which set her several thousand miles away from her immediate family), life was back to normal for Kaname--until Sousuke Sagara came into her life.

Strange things started happening after Sousuke enrolled at Jindai High, and it was obvious to Kaname that he was a real military maniac. However, it wasn't until she was captured by Gauron that Sousuke's true motivations were revealed--and that Kaname discovered that she was a Whispered, a psychic with access to highly-advanced technology highly-sought by organizations like Amalgam, the terrorist group that employed her captor. She was subsequently rescued by Sousuke and the rest of the Mithril forces, but since then, nothing has been the same.

Personality and Traits
In many ways, Kaname Chidori isn't a stereotypical Japanese girl; where most Japanese are passive and permissive, Kaname is their opposite: outspoken, aggressive, and temperamental. Unlike most of her peers, she isn't afraid to speak her mind, and is, at times, dangerously blunt. It is perhaps the years she spent abroad in America that helped to shape her into the antithesis of the archetypal Japanese.

Generally, Kaname is good-natured and helpful, and only a few people (namely Sousuke Sagara) are able to provoke her into aggression; when she's angry, though, she's not afraid to express it physically, be it in the form of a harisen beating or via a swift kick to the face. It is likely due to her spirited personality that Kaname has been described by her peers as "the girl that everyone likes, but no one wants to date".

Despite her forceful personality, Kaname is genuinely a responsible and selfless person, who cares about those around her in situations both life-threatening and mundane. From her stubborn refusal to escape to Mithril's submarine without Kurz and Sousuke to disguising herself as a beautiful, sophisticated older woman when Sousuke's attempt to capture the hearts of women as part of a club contest resulted in complete failure, it's easy to see that Kaname is a kind and considerate person--even if it's a facet of her personality she doesn't often leave exposed.

Kaname's relationship with her family is best described as complicated. After her mother's death, and likely even before it, Kaname has had a strained relationship with her father. It was due to their tense relationship that Kaname likely chose to stay in Japan in lieu of moving back to America with her father and younger sister. She does, however, stay in contact with her family via her sister Ayame, who she is presumably on good terms with, even despite their infrequent contact.

Like many civilians, Kaname isn't pleased there's a war going on, but also accepts it as a part of reality. There's no helping it, she reasons, given the massive differences between those involved in the conflict. Still, despite her dissatisfaction with the current state of events, she has no intentions of getting involved in the battle, beyond keeping up-to-date with her current events. As far as Kaname's concerned, all she wants is to live the normal life of a normal high school student.

But it seems that outside forces are determined to prevent that.

Talents and Abilities
Though Kaname lacks the skill to pilot a mech, she does have another ability that makes her a useful ally; she is a Whispered, a group of psychics with the ability to receive advanced technological information in the form of whispers that only she and other Whispered can hear.

Like all other Whispered, Kaname was born as a normal child, and as she grew in intellect and maturity, began to hear whispers. Those Whispers result in not only in a tangible rise of intelligence (to the point where many Whispereds can be called geniuses), but also in the occasional burble of intellect in the form of technology or situational wisdom. These whispers do not come without their detriments, as it is possible for them to overtake a Whispered and lead to a breakdown.

Aside from having access to large amounts of technology, the Whispered also have the ability to communicate with one another telepathically over great distances, and even shortly after death. However, if the Whispered resonate for too long or too deeply, it is possible that they will lose themselves completely.

However, Kaname also has a few mundane talents that make her a formidable force on the ground; she's won competitions in both swimming and track, and is extremely athletic. Any terrorist organization looking to capture this Whispered will have to be ready for a fight--or at the very least, a valiant struggle.

Relationships
One of Kaname's friends from Jindai High, Macua Huitl is the resident (female) model nerd. Though some might think she'd have an easier time getting along with classmate Shinji Kazama, Kaname and Macua struck up a friendship that's been burning strong since their second year. She later revealed she was a pilot to Kaname, who took the confession better than anyone probably expected.
 * Macua Huitl

Duo and Kaname met shortly after his transfer to Jindai High during his second year; the two forged a casual friendship over the course of the school year. Duo unexpectedly took a leave of absence from the school at the end of his second year, but the two have recently gotten back in touch thanks to a beach trip they took together on the school founder's day.
 * Duo Maxwell

Another one of Kaname's friends from high school, Meiya Mitsurugi has been in the same homeroom as Kaname since their second year. After an encounter on the TDD-1, Kaname learned that Meiya was a pilot for the EFA, and Meiya learned that Kaname was being guarded by Mithril. After Meiya told her about her secret life as an EFA pilot, Kaname realized the hardships her friend was going through without her knowing, and she encouraged her friend to confide in her about any problem she might have, on the battlefield or off of it... even if she doesn't really know all that much about ASes.
 * Meiya Mitsurugi

Assigned to her by Mithril to serve as her guard, Sousuke has been charged with and has been carrying out his duty as part-time guard to Kaname Chidori since their second year of high school. Despite Kaname's frequent frustrations with the boy soldier's extreme means of dealing with relatively mundane problems, she really does like Sousuke--perhaps even more than just like. Just don't expect her to admit it!
 * Sousuke Sagara