Entropy
Kunsel had joined the SOLDIER program about a month before the war against Wutai really got started: He and his mother had been made homeless during the run-up to war when ShinRa's forces were setting up military strongholds along the coast of the Western Continent to facilitate the invasion of Wutai. Kunsel -then not quite fifteen- had helped his half-Wutaian mother to transport all their worldly possessions all the way to the Eastern Continent and the half-built city of Midgar, which was as far from the brewing conflict as they could travel. Having arrived without even the money to buy food and wanting to support his mother, Kunsel had immediately enrolled in the fledgeling SOLDIER program and passed through cadet training without attracting undue attention from either his teachers or his peers; he had been average and neither popular or unpopular enough for the other cadets to really care about him.
It was only during his first three months of actually being in the program and staggering between Mako injections and rediscovering his limits that the Wutai war really got going and anti-Wutai prejudice rose like a tsunami both within ShinRa and the entire city of Midgar. Kunsel caught on early, decided to wear his SOLDIER helmet religiously while on duty and bought himself several pairs of wrap-around sunglasses to wear when not in uniform; His mother may only have been half-and-half but he himself was closer to three-quarters Wutaian. While he kept his hair too short for its shiny smoothness to be noticed and his skin was just fair enough not to attract suspicion from bigots, his slanted, almond-shaped eyes with their deep amber Mako glow would not be winning him any friends on either side of the conflict.
His ethnicity prompted him to keep an ear out for the subtle rumblings of the rumour mill, which over time grew into a veritable passion for information and intelligence. Despite none of his fellow SOLDIERs having any idea what he looked like without the helmet Kunsel still made a lot of friends with his laid-back attitude and willingness to share what he knew, so he never lacked for conversation or sparring partners. In fact, the only indication that someone, somewhere -probably Director Lazard- was aware of his heritage was the glacial slowness of his rise to second-class -it took five years- and the simple fact that no matter how short-handed SOLDIER was he was never shipped out for a rotation in Wutai. Not even once. Instead he got sent absolutely everywhere else, often on missions which should have called for a higher ranking SOLDIER. Quite a few of those missions were with Turks, who Kunsel learned to get along with in the interests of not being looked at too closely. He ended up doing less monster extermination and more of the tedious but important stuff that related to the smooth running of the company.
Getting sent all over the Planet at the drop of a hat had taught Kunsel to keep a very close eye on both the mission database and the various local news bulletins of all the different towns across both continents and enabled him to collect a mass of information pertaining to almost everything in existence. His eventual promotion to second-class after the Kalm Incident -which Kunsel tried not to think about much- just increased his clearance, ability to access information and the range of mission types he was called on to perform. He also gained a reputation within SOLDIER of being the person who knew what was what, who was where and why.
Kunsel knew perfectly well that he was unlikely to ever be promoted to first-class, but that didn't really bother him. He had a job for life that paid well enough for him to support his mother in a small apartment in Sector Four, plenty of friends both inside SOLDIER and out and no shortage at all of interesting ways to pass the time.
He first heard about Draculina through SOLDIER gossip; a pretty girl who was totally unphased by glowing Mako eyes was something of a rarity. That said girl was also described as 'moving like a first-class' could just have been an exaggeration but still warranted some in-depth investigation. Which was why, when his shift ended, the second-class went home, changed into casual clothing, grabbed a pair of wrap-around sunglasses with a reflective coating and headed out for The Underground. Whoever this Draculina was, she was bound to be worth knowing about.
On entering The Underground Kunsel skirted the packed dance floor and made his way over to the bar, perching on one of the bar stools as he absently tapped his fingers to the beat and idly watched the fringes of the mass of moving bodies swaying in time with the music. He visited this club often enough to pick up gossip that the barman recognised him on sight and mixed him an Earthquake, lingering while the second-class swallowed it down.
"So, what brings you here Kunsel?"
"Rumours, what else?" Kunsel replied with an easy smile. An Earthquake was pretty stiff for a normal person -Absinthe and Cognac- but to a SOLDIER it barely qualified as a starter. "I've been hearing a lot about a new lady patronising this place."
The barman chuckled. "Draculina. Well, she's certainly worth gossiping about, I can tell oyu that. Shows less skin than the rest of the women who dance here but she still catches everyone's eye; especially the SOLDIERS. I've seen her eyes close-to once or twice and I swear they have a faint glow to them."
"No women in SOLDIER; Mako supposedly doesn't react reliably to their physiology," Kunsel commented, now very interested in this new player. Draculina was sounding more intriguing by the minute and appeared to be a person worth watching.
"Accident survivor then perhaps?" the barman shrugged. "I'll tell you something, though: She looks way to much like the Silver General for them not to be related."
Kunsel blinked. No-one knew if Sephiroth had family. Hell, even his surname was a mystery. Current gossip held he had been engineered by the Science Department, which his newly-slitted pupils seemed to suggest might actually be a possibility. He'd heard a first-class swear the General had claws as well now. That was worrying as it suggested there was more going into the SOLDIER injections than just Mako. Or if it was just Mako, someone was playing fast and loose with disclosure on the long-term effects.
"Talking about me?"
Kunsel spun in his seat and was unable to keep himself from gasping at the girl who'd just managed to sneak up on him. His first thought was that there was no way she wasn't related to General Sephiroth; even with black hair and crimson eyes, Draculina -it had to be her- could pass as the man's twin sister.
Kunsel's second and final coherent thought was that she was by far the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life. Her pale and exotic colouring, her modest yet revealing attire, her adorably messy hair and most of all her poise and facial expression combined to create a picture he could not look away from. Here, Kunsel knew instinctively, was an intelligent and powerful woman with more mystery surrounding her than ShinRa's entire science department.
Zhao Kunsel was hooked. He promptly fell head over heels in love with luminous red eyes and a faintly teasing fanged smirk that dared him to risk everything and find out exactly how far the rabbit-hole could go.
Kunsel falls in love. Oh dear.
