Yasuko got her start in a dream, what would become Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. I had this clear image of this young woman’s daring infiltration of an orbital facility via space elevator (which I had mistakenly identified as a skyhook before further research revealed the difference). I knew she was there for revenge, but the why and how had to be developed later. I believe I developed the trigger for her revenge plot before I had considered establishing Tío Jorge’s role in CeleKing1. The dream had identified her as the daughter of a common-born Imperial Guard (Batista) and a noblewoman (Masako), so when came to explaining why she was down on the service, being put in the care of her father’s extended family seemed like a natural choice. From there, abuse by the ruling Celestials leading to the death of one or both adoptive parents made for an easy justification for revenge. In other words, it didn’t take much effort to sort out the pieces provided to me by my subconscious, so with that out of the way, let’s review the character by the numbers.

Yasuko’s name (寧子) is in honor of Lord Ninghe, who helped Batista and Masako in CeleKing1. (You see the same characters read as “Neko” for the lead female in Brynhildr in the Darkness, but for those of you who are unaware, there are multiple readings for characters in personal names.) The child of a Celestial and an Infernal, she was in an awkward position from birth, ineligible to succeed her mother as head of House Suzuki barring a special dispensation from the Emperor. Although Batista had been knighted when he was inducted into the Imperial Guard, the fact that he was an Infernal would have haunted Yasuko had she been raised in the Capital. In a way, the assassination attempt that resulted her being put in Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli’s care was ultimately to her benefit. It didn’t last long, but the time she had with Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli was probably the best of her life. Even after Tía Nayeli died of tuberculosis, Tío Jorge did a pretty good job of taking care of her until he was killed. Now, the choice between being despised in the Capital and the hard-scrabble life she lived after Tío Jorge’s death is less clear. At very least, the experience toughened her up, both mentally and physically, which would prove essential to her survival, but it also fed her more self-destructive tendencies. For six years she did whatever it took to survive, relying on the kindness of strangers when she could but never setting down roots or making any real attachments. She studied ways to fight, learned what she could in various fields to help her put her plan for revenge into action. However, Yasuko is more of a tactical thinker than a strategic one. She can be rather clever in the pursuit of short-term goals yet blind when it comes to seeing the bigger picture. You see this in her occasional reflective moments when she thinks about how she never clearly sorted out the details of how she intended to exact her revenge and to what extent. This gets exploited by Sturla, who uses her impulsiveness to bring her under his power. Though she isn’t without moral sense, it’s been warped by her experiences and her lust for revenge. I can imagine she garners little sympathy with some readers because of this, but that’s partially by design. She is at least fairly self-aware of her shortcomings, not that the sting of her conscience is enough to stop her in most cases.

One point which may be controversial is how much Yasuko’s sexuality factors into her character. She definitely stands out compared to pretty much any other character of mine in that regard. Her age puts her at a stage of development where she isn’t fully matured mentally or physically, which opens up a lot of confusion that is exacerbated by Sturla and how he uses her. The perversity of Celestial society heightens this further. Because of her single-mindedness, Yasuko never really worked to sort out the issues related to establishing her sexual identity, shunning intimacy in all forms in favor of pursuing her goals. This left her extremely vulnerable to someone like Sturla, who uses sex as one of his many weapons. To this end, there are four particular relationships that highlight Yasuko’s struggles.

1. Prince Sturla is bundle of physical and psychological abuse, but as much as he’s basically everything Yasuko hates about the Celestials, she can’t deny her attraction to him. I wanted to explore the concept of physical attraction in spite of whatever a person might think rationally. Of course Yasuko had to deal with the occasional would-be predator during her years on the streets, but she had never been the focus of such concentrated attention in such an (unwantedly) appealing package. The fact that he can so thoroughly dominate her physically adds to that paradoxical appeal. There is an unconscious part of her that seeks submission, which is sharply at odds with her fiercely independent and rebellious personality. A part of her knows this and it only adds to her anger. Now, if you think this undermines Yasuko’s strength as a character, that’s your call, but we have a number of impulses and unconscious drives and what matters most is how we consciously deal with them. In the end, it isn’t the unconscious impulses but the conscious will that drives her to her final confrontation with Sturla. Even though she needed her father’s help to overcome Sturla physically, I would say that she had already won the psychological battle with him. Do with that what you will.

2. Hongxia is in some ways an extension of Sturla’s abuse, but her rivalry with Yasuko puts her in her own category. Compared to the inexperienced and uncertain Yasuko, Hongxia is fully couched in her sexuality and its use as a weapon. She has the task of instructing Yasuko in the tools of her trade, but there isn’t the slightest trace of an amiable master-apprentice relationship. Yasuko’s unwillingness to do what’s demanded of her, her defiance, and Sturla’s interest in her all fuel Hongxia’s anger and jealousy. Yasuko’s prudishness is seen as a slap in the face to the courtesan’s open sexuality and her refusal to submit is an affront to her supposed position of authority over her. As Hongxia takes special pride in being one of the few partners able to keep pace with Sturla in the bedroom, the last thing she wants to do is train up a potential replacement. With such a twisted knot of a relationship, it’s little wonder how messily it ended. (Certainly there’s plenty that can be read into their fight.)

3. Yoon-hee is a more positive example but still tainted by the corruption around Yasuko. As noted before, Yasuko eschewed all forms of intimacy during her years of wandering, so the closeness afforded by a personal attendant was something quite alien to Yasuko. The one time Yasuko put the moves on her was more about her finding an unhealthy outlet for her frustrations than anything else. I’ll leave it to the audience to debate whether Yoon-hee is evidence of Yasuko being bisexual, bicurious, or simply in a romantic friendship. The waters are deliberately left muddy. Of course, whatever Yasuko’s feelings, the power imbalance casts a bit of a shadow over the relationship. Yoon-hee is thoroughly conditioned for obedience, so even what she would claim to be her own feelings may not accord with her heart of hearts. Of course, we don’t get to explore the possibilities further as Yasuko sends Yoon-hee away for her safety. How might things have developed otherwise? Who knows?

4. Lowen and Yasuko don’t spend all that much time together, but they represent a common pattern of attraction forming amid traumatic circumstances. Lowen was the closest to Yasuko in age among the survivors of his crew and he had the most interaction with her and the closest. The feelings were mutual and we saw how far Yasuko was prepared to go had Sigma no intervened. However, even if they would have had sex with each other, it wouldn’t have changed the final disposition of their relationship. The materials were there for something to be built, but Yasuko’s personality simply won’t let other people get close for long. This was exacerbated by the circumstances at the end of CeleKing3, having been responsible for the death of her father and the betrayal of her mother. Having lost the most fundamental relationships a person has, of course she would reject any others, particularly when she’d already spent a large chunk of her life pushing others away. Now, in another universe, it’s possible that Lowen might have had a stabilizing affect on her and maybe she could have had a more well-adjusted life, but that isn’t the universe we got.

With all her internal contradictions and conflicts, Yasuko proved to be an interesting character to write. She’s not the first character of mine to be primarily motivated by revenge, but her path was probably the most overrun with brambles and thorns. I know it’s a common moral that revenge does more to harm the avenger than the object of vengeance, but definitely in Yasuko’s case, her pursuit of revenge cost far more than she gained. Things didn’t work out so well for her, but are the paisanos she allegedly fought for better off on account of her efforts? Many of them think otherwise, as seen by the epilogue of CeleKing3, but if I had to wager, I’d say the people of Erdi got a better deal. Maybe not by much depending on who’s in charge at the time, but people have all sorts of opinions about such things.

Now that we’re done with Yasuko for now, I think I’ll go ahead with the idea I floated before to feature Masako and Sturla next. Stay tuned.

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