YUU ZUMIYA

FILE DESIGNATION: P-YSZ-001
CLASSIFICATION: HISTORICAL / RESTRICTED
FILE INTEGRITY: 81%

The Zumiya family traces its ancestry back more than fourteen centuries, to the ancient city of Cleyra, located on the Mist continent, East of Alexandria. Seeking opportunities beyond their homeland, the family’s ancestors eventually settled in Alexandria, where they established a presence that would endure for generations.

The family’s influence was never built on numbers alone. Through legitimate ventures in crafting and trade, the Zumiyas cultivated a network of informants, spies, and underworld contacts that allowed them to operate quietly behind the scenes. They were merchants when business called for it, intermediaries when discretion was needed, and considerably less respectable when circumstances demanded.

Their strength lay not in ruling from the shadows, but in knowing who held power, what they wanted, and how to make themselves useful.

For much of their history, the clan was fiercely protective of its heritage. Marriage outside their ancestral lineage was discouraged, and preserving their traditions became a point of pride. That began to change when one of the subject’s distant ancestors, identified as his great-great-great-great-grandfather, married a Hyune woman. Their five children marked the beginning of a gradual shift in the family’s appearance and customs.

Over the generations, the two lineages became increasingly interwoven. Some descendants retained the familiar features of their ancestors, while others bore a closer resemblance to the Hyune, with only distinctive ears, tails, or occasional whiskers revealing their heritage.

The clan’s fortunes changed dramatically during the lightning calamity that devastated Alexandria, following the use of an electrical superweapon attributed to neighboring Lindblum. Much of the city was lost, and the Zumiya family was nearly wiped out alongside it.

The handful who survived contributed what they could to the construction of Everkeep, eventually making their home within its walls approximately 420 years ago. Rebuilding took generations, but the family gradually recovered a measure of stability. As their influence shifted from old traditions toward new alliances, the Zumiyas became more willing to open their doors to the people around them.

Their recovery, however, would not last.

The family had long regarded Preservation with a mixture of respect and apprehension. They understood the appeal of regulators and the security they promised, but the principles behind Alexandrian soul technology troubled them. To the Zumiyas, a person’s identity and existence belonged to that person alone. No promise of safety could entirely justify surrendering control over something so fundamental.

Their refusal to adopt regulators eventually brought them into conflict with the organization. What began as a matter of principle grew into a prolonged struggle, marked by raids, arrests, and disappearances. With each passing generation, the family’s influence diminished, its surviving members scattered or forced underground.

By the time Yuu was born, the Zumiya name carried little of the weight it once had. Those who remained survived through old connections, quiet dealings, and the occasional return to the less lawful trades their ancestors had once mastered.

The later rise of Zoraal Ja brought fresh uncertainty. The clan’s troubles had begun long before his reign, but the crown’s ambitions gave the surviving Zumiyas little reason to believe their circumstances would improve.

ANALYST'S NOTE: The family’s historical resistance appears rooted in ideological opposition rather than simple political rivalry. Remaining records suggest that its former influence may have been considerably greater than publicly acknowledged.

Further genealogical records and documentation of the family’s pre-Everkeep activities have been sealed under a separate classification.

FILE DESIGNATION: P-YSZ-002
CLASSIFICATION: PERSONNEL / BACKGROUND
FILE INTEGRITY: 94%

Yuu Zumiya was born forty-two years ago in Everkeep, the son of a Hyune bartender and a Cleyran-descended gun-for-hire.

His father belonged to one of the few remaining branches of the Zumiya clan, earning his living through contracts that ranged from private security to work better left unmentioned. His mother ran a bar in Solution Nine, where she learned to read people quickly, listen carefully, and recognize when a conversation was best left unfinished.

Even as a child, Yuu was curious about the world around him. He wanted to know how things worked, why they worked, and whether he could make them work better. He showed a natural aptitude for mechanics, an instinct for business, and reflexes that often put him a step ahead of other children his age.

Electrope fascinated him in particular. To Yuu, it was more than a useful resource; it was a puzzle, full of possibilities waiting to be discovered.

His childhood took a turn when he was fourteen. His father died under circumstances that were never satisfactorily explained. The accounts surrounding his death were inconsistent, and no clear answers ever emerged.

Given his father’s work and the family’s troubled history with Preservation, Yuu and his mother suspected there was more to the story than they had been told. Suspicion, however, was all they had. Whatever had happened, the truth remained out of reach.

Yuu took the loss badly. He had little patience for grief and even less idea what to do with it. Restless and angry, he began spending time with a group of local toughs who organized illegal fights in the backstreets of Solution Nine.

What started as an outlet soon became a way of life. Yuu was quick, difficult to predict, and possessed of a stubbornness that made him reluctant to stay down, even when common sense suggested otherwise.

The fights brought more than bruises. Rivalries spilled into the streets, territory became a source of constant contention, and favors were exchanged with people whose intentions were rarely straightforward. Yuu found himself drawn deeper into that world, gaining a reputation among the city's less reputable circles.

He knew the life was dangerous, but danger was easier to understand than the grief he had never learned to confront.

For a time, he convinced himself that was enough.

ASSOCIATED RECORD: P-YSZ-003
FLAGGED CONTENT: Possible connection between the subject’s father’s death and prior investigations into the Zumiya family.

FILE DESIGNATION: P-YSZ-003
CLASSIFICATION: VIOLENT CRIME / SEALED
FILE INTEGRITY: 68%

At twenty-two, Yuu returned home from another long day of fighting to find his mother dead.

Her killers had left little doubt that the act was deliberate. Alongside their taunts was a message claiming she might have survived if she had worn a regulator.

Whether they believed their own words or had chosen them simply to inflict as much pain as possible, Yuu never cared to find out. He saw only that the last person he had left had been taken from him, and that the people responsible had made a mockery of her death.

Whatever restraint he possessed disappeared with her.

Yuu set out to find the killers, following one lead after another through the same streets where he had spent years building his reputation. Grief made him reckless, and his enemies knew it. He burned through alliances, ignored warnings, and fought anyone who stood between him and the people he wanted to reach.

Each confrontation brought him closer to his goal while leaving him less capable of recognizing the trap taking shape around him.

When he finally found those responsible, they were waiting.

The fight was brutal. Yuu managed to bring several of them down, but he had walked into a confrontation he could not win. His right arm was severed, and his injuries left him struggling for breath.

By the time the fighting ended, he was barely conscious. His attackers abandoned him behind a pair of dumpsters, confident that the wounds they had inflicted would finish the job.

For a while, Yuu believed they were right.

INCIDENT OUTCOME: Subject survived. Right-arm amputation. Multiple traumatic injuries. Perpetrators: Identities withheld. Investigation records sealed.

EVIDENCE EXTRACT:
Recovered message attributed to the perpetrators indicates that the victim’s refusal to use a regulator was deliberately invoked as justification for the murder. Authenticity of the message has not been independently verified.

ANALYST'S NOTE: The incident demonstrates a marked escalation in the subject’s willingness to engage in violence when personally motivated. Subsequent behavior suggests the event had lasting consequences beyond physical injury.

FILE DESIGNATION: P-YSZ-004
CLASSIFICATION: MEDICAL / PERSONAL
FILE INTEGRITY: 97%

When consciousness finally returned, it did so slowly and painfully. Yuu awoke in an unfamiliar apartment in Solution Nine’s residential district, disoriented, weak, and struggling to speak.

More than two weeks had passed since he had been found. His right arm was gone, and the realization of how close he had come to dying settled over him with every labored breath.

The woman caring for him was Isette, an Eldite medical practitioner specializing in electrope-powered prosthetics. She had discovered him in an alley near the clinic where she worked and recognized that his injuries would prove fatal if he were left there. Getting him somewhere safe had been difficult; keeping him alive had required considerable improvisation and the help of people she trusted.

She had taken a risk in saving him, particularly given the circumstances surrounding his injuries. Yuu knew that. He also knew she had asked for nothing in return.

Kindness without obligation was unfamiliar territory.

His recovery was slow, and surviving was only the beginning. He had to learn how to live without his right arm, adapting to tasks he had once performed without a second thought. Isette helped him through the medical side of his recovery, but she never treated him as though his injuries had taken away his ability to make decisions for himself.

When the time came to discuss a prosthesis, Yuu’s mechanical instincts proved invaluable. Isette understood the medical requirements; Yuu understood how he wanted the arm to function. Together, they began designing a replacement suited to his needs, making adjustments as he learned to use it and discovering improvements neither would have considered alone.

The work brought them closer. Gratitude gave way to trust, and trust slowly grew into something neither had expected when their paths first crossed.

In time, they fell in love.

MEDICAL ADDENDUM: Subject demonstrates significant aptitude for mechanical design and practical problem-solving. Prosthesis development involved direct collaboration between subject and attending practitioner.

PERSONAL RECORDS: Details of the subject’s treatment, recovery, and private correspondence with Isette have been withheld.

FILE DESIGNATION: P-YSZ-005
CLASSIFICATION: PERSONAL / RESTRICTED
FILE INTEGRITY: 92%

For the next fifteen years, Yuu and Isette built a life together in Solution Nine.

Isette continued her medical work, while Yuu found steady employment as a bouncer and security guard at clubs and bars throughout the city. The work suited him. He was capable, observant, and more comfortable handling trouble than sitting behind a desk discussing it. It also offered the flexibility he wanted, leaving him free to pursue his interests outside working hours.

He spent much of that time tinkering with electrope devices, repairing broken equipment, and experimenting with ideas that rarely made it beyond his workshop. He had a genuine talent for engineering, but he never wanted to turn it into a career. There was a difference, in his mind, between creating something because he wanted to and building something because someone else had decided what it should be used for.

For years, that distinction caused little trouble between them. They had their disagreements, as any couple would, but they loved one another and understood that affection did not require agreement on everything.

Isette was practical and deeply invested in the city she called home. Yuu was more suspicious of authority, shaped by a family history that had taught him to be wary of institutions promising security in exchange for obedience.

They learned to live with those differences. Neither expected the other to abandon their convictions simply to keep the peace.

Then the crown began expanding production of its robotic soldiers.

Yuu was approached with an offer to put his mechanical expertise to work in the program. The pay was generous, the position secure, and the opportunity to advance his skills considerable.

He refused all the same.

He wanted no part in manufacturing weapons for a government he distrusted, particularly one whose ambitions seemed to grow with every passing day.

Isette saw the matter differently. She believed the crown's plans served a purpose and that refusing to participate would not necessarily prevent the work from being done. Given her experience in medicine, she could not easily dismiss the possibility that contributing her own expertise might protect lives or keep dangerous technology in more responsible hands.

Neither was being unreasonable. Neither could accept the other's conclusion.

Their disagreements grew more frequent as the military program expanded. What had once been a difference of opinion became a question of principle, forcing them to confront a divide that affection alone could not bridge.

Yuu could not bring himself to support the crown's ambitions, and Isette could not accept that withdrawing from the work was necessarily the better choice.

After fifteen years together, they separated.

There was no single argument that made the decision easy, nor did either of them stop caring for the other. They simply reached a point where remaining together meant continually asking the other to compromise something fundamental.

In the end, neither was willing to do that.

Yuu moved into his own apartment and returned to the familiar business of finding work wherever he could. He threw himself into routine, keeping busy with security contracts, repairs, and whatever distractions he could find. Outwardly, he seemed to take the separation in stride. Privately, it left a mark deeper than he cared to admit.

Months later, he gave himself a tattoo of a broken heart repaired in the style of kintsugi. It was not an attempt to erase the past or convince himself that he had emerged from it unscathed. Rather, it was a reminder that something could be broken without losing its worth, and that healing did not require returning to what had been before.

The tattoo marked no grand revelation. It was simply a promise to himself that he would keep going.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Ended after approximately fifteen years.
KNOWN CONFLICT: Subject refused a crown-affiliated military engineering position. Partner’s continued support for the program contributed to irreconcilable differences.

ANALYST'S NOTE: Subject’s personal attachments appear genuine and long-lasting. However, he demonstrates a strong reluctance to compromise his convictions, even when doing so carries substantial personal cost.