Personnel Dossier // NONEREF: PER-ZANKOU
PORTRAIT · PER-ZANKOUFactionNONE
StatusACTIVE
RarityS
Esper TypeEsperIncantation
Esper AbilityEye of Delusion
BirthdayNovember 13
// NONE · ACTIVE
ZANKOU
Zankou
Signature abilityEye of Delusion
── Intel ──
Zankou rarely speaks of the days that came before she joined The Scarlet Letter. To her, such dark times were not worth remembering.
It all began with a careless, secret experiment. A solitary, unknown girl was treated as a vessel for cultivating Esper Ability, and the researchers, along with those greedy, gluttonous elites, considered her a worthless sacrifice on the path to greatness.
Unbelievable pain, solitude, mutilation, rebirth... these grotesque, repulsive torments were daily occurrences.
Time and again, she would inch towards the edge of death, only to be dragged back to the world of the living.
Until, in a bitter irony, a miracle truly came to pass: her Esper Ability burst forth, turning that sinful dungeon into an ocean of blood. No one survived but her.
A noble, pure-hearted philanthropist was the first to discover her amidst the ruins. She brought that girl back to the gardens, as if transporting a feral wildflower. To her delight, that wildflower, born in the filth and muck, was already tempered completely-exactly to her liking.
Thus, the flower known as "Red Nightshade" took root in the soil of Scarlet Letter, and Inanna gained her loyal adopted daughter-her sharpest dagger.
Yet, Inanna was unaware that the "leash" on her daughter frayed at the edges. Zankou kept quiet about her own Esper Ability, and only opened that uncanny eye of hers from the shadows, hoping to peer into her new family's hearts. Those who tried to bully her, curry favor, or befriend, were merely ignored—and instead swept into a sinking mire, where reality and illusion blurred. They began to doubt what was real or false, slowly transforming into soulless husks-playthings to be puppeteered by Zankou.
"Everyone has a flame burning in their heart."
To Zankou, people's faces were merely monochrome, but the bright red flames of their souls never ceased to burn.
Each person's fire was different—some fierce, some dim, some dark, some crimson... In her eyes, most were utterly mundane; the few that were worth a second glance could only serve as brief playthings. It was only when she watched those flames burn themselves out on the brink of collapse, exhaling flake after flake of hopeless ash, that she showed a hint of delight, as if at last admiring a masterpiece.
But in this cold, monotonous world, dotted with countless dreary flickers, there was always one different soul... At first, it was a blinding white; later, it became a hue she had yet to see anywhere else—an indescribable color. "How beautiful... I'm unable to look away."
// Recovered fragments · 8 on file
Story Files
When it comes to the unknown, human beings have always shared the same curiosity and arrogance. From awe to fear, from scrutinizing to touching, until the spark of "conquest" fully ignited the fuse of greed... such was the attitude some held toward the existence known as "Espers". Cults, circles, private research institutes, secret societies... those driven by greed and pride gathered like hyenas, desperate for a morsel of flesh. They would pay any price, ignore every restriction and taboo, and thirst for the miracles an Esper Ability could bring... or perhaps, for the ability itself.
On a remote island, there was a secret society deemed "Eyepecker." Its members believed in a heresy: Esper Abilities were a gift from a mysterious unknown, and that gift would bless the fortunate ones born with special "eyes". They went about collecting those who were described as such, regarding them as "vessels" for the awakening of Esper Abilities, imprisoning them in dark, dank dungeons and burning their eyes every day with a searing mixture.
They firmly believed this would awaken abilities—and that by transplanting those eyes into themselves, they could seize that power for their own.
Zankou's earliest memory began in that cruel jail.
The girl had a pair of gem-like eyes.
She could not understand why, her vision deprived of color, she could only see a gray-white blur. What she understood even less was how far a human's greed could push them to do the unspeakable. Ever since Eyepecker had abducted her, the meaning of her existence had been reduced to being completely bound every day, having her eyelids pried open, and trembling as the scalding, acrid, murky liquid dripped onto her eyeballs.
The voracious, intoxicated by their own delusions, carried out their devilish deeds day after day, heedless of its absurdity. Yet, ironically, Zankou really did awaken the Esper Ability dwelling in her eyes under that inhuman torture. When she was brought to the eye-extraction ritual, the society's members were already arguing over who the eyes would belong to, each one revealing the hidden identity they had been concealing all along: the powerful, the wealthy, or some illustrious family... Their voices grew into a raucous uproar, and in the haze of anesthesia, Zankou saw the first color beyond black and white. It was warm and blinding, burning brightly among the embers of countless souls, spraying from wounds opened in slaughter, weaving into a scarlet maelstrom that encircled her...
That day, the Eye of Delusion shrouded the entire island, and the lowlifes who competed with one another instead butchered each other to death, drowning within the hallucination, until no one was left alive.
End of fileREF: PER-ZANKOU