Kokonoe Mercury

Kokonoe Mercury is a scientist at Sector Seven, and an important character in the BlazBlue series. In Continuum Shift, Kokonoe hosts her own omake series alongside Litchi's, called Help Me, Professor Kokonoe!. She is a playable DLC character in the console version of BlazBlue: Chronophantasma.

Information
Tager's and Lambda's superior at Sector Seven, and also formerly Litchi's and Lotte's. She is a half-breed and the daughter of Jubei and Konoe A. Mercury, two of the Six Heroes, though she shows disdain for this fact, supposedly "staying angry for weeks" when Jubei is mentioned. The reason behind this is that Jubei left her in the care of the Novus Orbis Librarium for a great deal of her childhood, apparently not staying around to act as a father figure to her.

She has a deep hatred for Terumi, because he killed her mother, Konoe, and her aunt, Celica. She also has a strong dislike of Hakumen, but cooperates with him because she needs the Susano'o Unit to defeat Terumi and cannot figure out how to separate him from it. During the events of Continuum Shift, it is revealed that Kokonoe has created and stockpiled hundreds of nuclear warheads in her lab. Hakumen mentions that it was weapons like those that decimated the world a hundred years prior. In the end, after Ragna the Bloodedge successfully turned Noel Vermillion back into her normal state, his left arm was destroyed. Kokonoe was able to make Ragna a new mechanical arm, stating that a man who has not been in the habit of asking for favors asked her a favor. This man was Jubei, and she agreed to do that favor, while also mentioning that they had not seen each other in 20 years.

In the past, she worked alongside Relius Clover under a group known as the "Sin Architects". The story behind this was further explained in Continuum Shift II's second Extra Story – that which is inherited. Kokonoe was offered a job by Relius to work on the Nox Nyctores; however, she refused. Relius then showed Kokonoe the then-newly created Ignis and Nirvana, after which they left to open the Cauldron. After Relius opened the Cauldron, the Black Beast was released, and Relius proceeded to tell Kokonoe that the only way to stop it is for her to use magic inherited from Konoe. Relius explained that the very core of Nox Nyctores are created through part of the Black Beast, and Kokonoe's mother Konoe was the one who created the Nox Nyctores. She is skeptical of using magic, but after hearing Tager's scream, she no longer hesitated and unleashed Konoe's power – Snap Weapon: Infinite Gravity. She became exhausted afterwards and Relius decided to show his true colors; at this, Kokonoe became enraged and Nirvana (under her control) strikes Relius down, supposedly killing him.

In Chronophantasma, she and Tager are allied with Kagura Mutsuki in helping to overthrow NOL, which is that she had a chance to eliminate Terumi/Hazama as well. After her father fought Phantom, she is informed that Phantom is actually her own mother, revealed to be alive, but brainwashed by Hades Izanami.

Personality
Kokonoe is a rather serious and cynical woman with no regard for emotions, and always strives for Tager to complete his missions without fail; however, she can on rare occasions be quite personable, mostly around her creations. She is displayed and perceived as cranky and foul-mouthed most of the time. She and Taokaka possess a few similar personality traits, something that most note as "more in common than they realize", due to their impatient nature and short attention span. She has some traits of her father and her mother. She also displays signs of being aware of the racism displayed to her heritage as a half-Beastkin; believing that people will show prejudice against her, it's for this reason that even her potential new students and apprentices aren't aware of her species, as displayed by Litchi in Chronophantasma.

However, as Celica points out, Kokonoe is a good person at heart. Without Litchi's knowledge, she became Arakune's Observer despite the risks entailed to prevent the Boundary from consuming him and is trying to figure out an effective solution for his depraved state. Also, she repeatedly shows that she will only resort to mass destruction in a worst-case scenario, preferring to minimize the casualties caused by her war against Terumi or not have any at all. She was also willing to use an alternative method to activating the Lynchpin where Celica wasn't sacrificed despite her being merely a clone and even took the initiative to create a Nirvana duplicate so she could defend herself.

Tager has described Kokonoe as being selfish, foul-mouthed, having an addiction to Silvervine candy and having the belief that the entire world focuses on her and her alone. Overall, Tager gives a very negative outlook on her when first describing Kokonoe to Noel Vermillion; however, at the end of his 'frank opinions' on his superior, he states that she is actually a very kind and good person, something that Makoto Nanaya immediately calls out on, calling it contradictory to his previous sentiments.

Lotte Carmine also introduces his opinions about Kokonoe to Litchi Faye-Ling when they first met. Despite his numerous complaints about her lack of ability to congratulate people, he points out how she possesses the trait of not paying much attention to detail; but compliments her abilities as a scientist.

Appearance
Kokonoe appears as a fairly young adult catgirl with a slim build. Her eyes are a golden-amber with visible bags under them, due to working overtime in her lab. She has pink hair which she keeps tied in a specialized style consisting of a long ponytail backing up longer tufts resembling large cat ears, which tend to overshadow her actual animal-like ears, which fade into white at the tip. Her attire consists of an altered, scientist version of the usual Kaka jacket with a white coloration. A hole at the lower base provides room for her twin, cat-like tails. She also wears a pair of small spectacles, and is never without her trademark lollipop.

The over-sized sleeves are cut at the sides to make it easier for her arms to slide in and out of them. She wears a pair of red capri pants with a black belt adorned by a large cat bell. The attire is completed with a pair of white mules with heels similar to the boots the Kaka Clan wears, but with no vamp, allowing her to take them off almost reflexively as her story mode render shows her barefoot in one of her feet.

When she was young, she had short hair and kept it in a pigtail, and wore the same yellow ribbon that she wears as an adult. She also did not wear spectacles. In terms of clothing, she wore a jacket similar to Taokaka's except with the hood down, and with a black collar.

Powers and Abilities
Despite being as capable on the battlefield as much as any character, Kokonoe doesn't participate in combat a great deal. Her forte comes in the form of her grand knowledge of magic and science and being the daughter of Konoe supplements this. While she has not shown any of her own creations, her prowess as a scientist is frightening, her alterations to organic and non-organic matter being second to none, even causing the normally ruthless and intimidating Hakumen to shudder at the promise of an 'upgrade' from her. Her prominent works thus far have been the revival of Tager through cybernetics and the activation of Lambda by bonding Nu's soul to the empty homunculus.

Due to comments dropped by both Hakumen and Hazama, and also being the daughter of both Jubei and Konoe, Kokonoe could be one of the most powerful individuals in the BlazBlue universe, though she refuses to admit it as it greatly angers her. Owing to her cat-like heritage, Kokonoe is known to possess cat-like reflexes, landing on all fours after falling from relatively great heights with no damage whatsoever.

When forced to take a direct hand in the battlefield, Kokonoe proves to be a very capable fighter. In battle, Kokonoe brings forth her many creations and tools such as using robots, a wrench, a specialized 'drill hammer', a freeze ray, rocket fists, and a gigantic Mecha-Tager. It should also be noted that she is not above using magic in battle, using it to summon a giant meteor in her Astral Heat.

In gameplay terms, Kokonoe has been described as a powerful rushdown character with many options; she is the only character, save Jin, who can freeze an opponent, for example. Her Drive is Graviton, which allows her to summon a small mechanical device that can pull opponents toward it, trapping them for Kokonoe to attack. Her Overdrive is Graviton Rage which increases the effects of any Graviton attacks, while reducing the amount of meter needed to use them. Before the major 1.01 update for Chronophantasma, Kokonoe was regarded as the ultimate character in the game; post update, her capabilities have been toned down, but she still retains her top tier position.

Etymology
Kokonoe is seemingly a corruption of Kokono; the kun'yomi reading of the kanji letter for the number "nine" (九, on'yomi: kyū, kun'yomi: kokono); possibly a play on her mother's alias, Nine; as well as this, Kokonoe alludes to her mothers name, Konoe. Rather intriguingly, the Koko in Kokonoe may allude to her love of chocolate which is made with coco, due to the same pronunciation. One final interesting piece of info about her name is about the position of the Koko in her name; because it is placed at the front of her name and uses 'K' and a vowel immediately afterwards, it draws similarities to the Kaka's who's suffix follows a similar fashion, with the only difference being that is placed at the end of their name's. Given the relation between the two and the fact they can both been seen as daughters of Jubei, it seems to be an intentional pun of sorts on the writers part.

Mercury, Kokonoe's last name, is far simpler in origin, it comes from the Latin Mercurius and is commonly associated with either the chemical compound, Hg, or with the Roman God Mercury (of which the compound was named after). A possible reason for this being Kokonoe's last name is that the compound is often used for scientific purposes, despite being phased out in recent years because of its toxic vapor.

Like her relatives Celica A. Mercury and Konoe Mercury, Kokonoe has the distinction of carrying on Arc System Works tradition of naming characters in reference to Freddie Mercury, the reference being held in the families last name - Mercury.

Kokonoe (九重) is also the name of a sumo stable.

A grimalkin (Kokonoe's English nickname) is an old or evil-looking cat found in Scottish legends. During the 16th-18th centuries they were associated with devils and witchcraft and people tried as witches were often accused of having grimalkin familiars.

A bakeneko (Kokonoe's Japanese nickname) is a demon cat found in Japanese legends. Regular cats can become bakeneko through various ways including their tails becoming forked in which case they can also be called nekomata. They have various supernatural abilities including but not limited to shapeshifting, manipulating dead bodies and cursing humans.

Trivia

 * Kokonoe's birthday, April 18, is Invention Day.
 * In Tager's Arcade Mode, during VS Hakumen intro, Hakumen taunts Kokonoe saying her: "Why not come to battle yourself?". Due to Kokonoe being the daughter of the two strongest beings, as argued by Hakumen, he also taunts her saying that she has possibly enough power to stand against Yūki Terumi, which is actually possible (as shown at the end of Hazama's "Help me! Professor Kokonoe" Section, where an unknown object goes towards Hazama (presumably a missile), while Kokonoe arguing that "Hazama never thought anything, ever again. The End".)
 * Also, in one of the extra scenarios from BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II, she uses a spell that her mother used, called "Infinite Gravity".
 * The lollipop she licks is Silvervine candy, which may possibly (or jokingly) give her skills for her eloquent speech, as shown in Taokaka's "Help me! Professor Kokonoe" ending, where Taokaka eats one whole and starts making long sentences with words that she could not have used otherwise. Kokonoe then states that she had no idea the candy would have that kind of effect on someone from the Kaka clan. Tager states in Chronophantasma that Kokonoe is actually addicted to the substance.
 * In general, it is common for people of Kokonoe's caliber in both fiction and real life to often have a lot of sweets in general, due to providing glucose for high blood sugar as it fuels the brain.
 * Added to this, Silvervine (Actinidia Polygama) is a plant which effects cats in a way reminiscent of catnip (though supposedly more intensely). It is found in the mountainous regions of Japan and China and is a popular cat treat in Asia.
 * Kokonoe is the third character to complain about having small breasts, along with Noel and Platinum. She gets extremely irritated at Makoto's breast size during her own "Help Me! Professor Kokonoe!" segment.
 * Kokonoe's electrocuted sprite reveals several lollipops hidden inside her jacket sleeves, similar to how Taokaka is hiding a pair of fish inside hers in the same situation.