【CANNAE】Kanai Takeko

[Ichi]

KANAI TAKEKO
"Japanese girls usually go shopping and have the tea, right?"

Profile
  Nickname¹: Cannae
  Alias²: Kanai Takeko (金井 武子)
  Age³: 18
  Height: 156 cm (about 5' 1 1/2")
  Weight: 52.5 kg (about 116 lbs)
  Hair Color: White
  Eye Color: Brown
  Ethnicity: Mixed (half Iraqi-Kurdish, half American)
  Nationality: Japanese (formerly stateless)
  Sexuality: Straight
  Alignment: Tweener




Entrance Music

Arousing Soul - Faylan

Personality
     Cannae is a fairly easy going woman who usually does not take things too seriously. Not much seems to bother Cannae—she just seems happy to be in Japan, competing in LAW, and living a relatively normal life. She remains calm and relaxed even while fighting, the gravity of the situation seemingly lost on her. Cannae also has a mischievous side to her. She is not above fooling around and showboating. Nor is she above taunting others in the ring. Finally, while not overly aloof, Cannae is a bit of a loner. She usually avoids getting too close to people.




Appearance

Images

General Combat Information

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General
  Strategy: Pressure fighter
  Fighting Style(s): Striker, opportunistic grappler
  Preferred Attacks: Punches, kicks, body shots, leg kicks

Martial Arts
  Primary: Hybrid of many styles
  Secondary: Sambo, BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, U.S. Military Combatives, Street Fighting

Match Preferences
  Preferred Matches: Standard, submission only, hardcore
  Attitude To Hentai: "I'm a fighter, not a fucker."

Statistics

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Durability: 9/10

     Cannae can take hits extraordinarily well, and she is no stranger to getting hit. She also has an extremely strong will, something which developed out of the hardships she has had to face. However, she is somewhat small, so powerful strikes and power moves can still hurt a lot if they manage to land.

Stamina: 10/10

     Cannae is a cardio monster, rarely ever getting tired. This allows her to maintain a very fast-paced, aggressive style.

Strength: 6/10

     Cannae is quite strong for her size but that’s about it.

Speed: 10/10

     Cannae is good at making agile and explosive movements. It is difficult to catch her in the ring and she cuts angles like crazy. She is also capable of extremely fast, acrobatic maneuvers.

Striking (Offense): 9.25/10

     Cannae is a pressure fighter. She has an extremely high work-rate and tends to throw a high volume of strikes. She constantly keeps her opponents guessing by aggressively cutting angles and constantly moving in and out of striking range. This makes it very tiring to fight against Cannae. Most opponents are unable to keep up with her pace and end up faltering. Additionally, Cannae’s strikes are quite powerful for her size, so she can quickly pile on the damage.

Striking (Defense): 8.75/10

     Cannae’s defense style is primarily evasive. Rather than outright blocking strikes, Cannae will usually use a combination of footwork and head movements to avoid shots.
     While on her feet, Cannae stays in constant motion. She uses footwork to move in and out of range, and she constantly takes angles. Additionally, her head rarely stays in the same place for long, which causes many shots to whiff. All of this makes it difficult to land clean hits on Cannae.
     Cannae can also be quite showboaty at times. In those instances, she is not above dropping her hands and using fancy head movement and footwork to casually evade attacks.

Grappling (Offense): 6.5/10

     Most of Cannae’s grappling is based around not getting stuck in bad positions and getting back to her feet. As such, offensive grappling is not her first strategy. However, she is proficient in standard submissions (triangle chokes, armbars, kimuras, rear naked chokes, etc) and is not above using them if an opportunity presents itself.

Grappling (Defense): 8.5/10

     As she was often the smaller and weaker combatant, Cannae generally tried to avoid getting into full on grappling exchanges. She has good takedown defense, which allows her to stay standing most of the time. Her strikes are fast and difficult to catch, but should an opponent catch one of her limbs, Cannae can usually free her limb before she gets thrown or taken down.
     Even if one successfully takes Cannae down, keeping her down is quite difficult. She is good at getting back to her feet after being taken down. Moreover, if she senses that she is about to be put in a bad position, Cannae will use explosive movements to prevent her opponent from locking in the position. Should Cannae get put in a bad position, she will again rely on explosive movements to try to escape. Her movements on the ground are relentless, and she can often create enough space to either escape or improve position.
     Cannae’s defensive grappling is not without its weaknesses, however. She can struggle a lot against high-level grapplers who can take the fight to the ground and keep it there—even more so if said grappler has a size advantage on her. Cannae is also not a very patient grappler: if stuck in an inferior position, she will often try to force an opening to escape rather than wait for an opening to present itself. Finally, her smaller size can be a hindrance when grappling if her opponent is bigger than her.

Additional Information

• Cannae is extremely acrobatic. She is a very capable freerunner as well.

Moves and Combinations

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Moves

• Left liver hook - A clean blow to the liver will send any opponent tumbling to the canvas.
• Leg kicks - Cannae’s leg kicks are brutal. She quite literally uses them to chop her opponents down.
• Flying knee - A devastating move that can put an opponent down if timed correctly.

Combinations

Legend:

• 1 - Jab
• 2 - Cross
• 3 - Lead hook
• 4 - Rear hook
• 5 - Lead uppercut
• 6 - Rear uppercut
• b - Indicates that strike is to the body

Combinations:

• 1 → 1 → 2 → 3b
  • 1 → 1 → 2 → 3b → 3 → 4b
• 1 → Rear kick
• 1 → Lead teep
• (While in closed stance) 1 → Sidestep to cut angle → 2
• (While on the inside) 4b → 3b → 4b → 3
• 4b → 6
  • (While in closed stance) 1 → Slip → 4b → 6
• Et cetera

Past
     "Don't worry about it. My past is not important." — Cannae

Secret

Note

     Cannae’s faceclaim (Canaan from the anime Canaan) was a middle eastern mercenary. Because of that, I made Cannae a middle eastern mercenary as well. I tried to make Cannae’s backstory as realistic as possible, but it might not be perfect. I also took a little bit of inspiration from Canaan’s backstory, insofar as I had Cannae be trained by a mercenary named Siam.

     Cannae is a child of war, the result of illicit relations between an American operative and a Kurdish woman. Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March of 2003, the United States had sent teams from the CIA Special Activities Division into Iraq to help prepare for the main invasion. These teams consisted of CIA paramilitary operations officers and soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group—Cannae's father was among these men. Over the course of the operation, Cannae's father became acquainted with—and later impregnated—a local Kurdish woman. However, as sexual relations between military personnel and local women are prohibited, Cannae's father was severely sanctioned and released from duty.
     Cannae's mother fared much worse. Because she had premarital relations, she was forced to flee from her home of Sulaymaniyah, eventually settling in Baghdad. As an unmarried, destitute woman, Cannae's mother had almost no means of supporting herself or her unborn child. She ended up homeless, and had to resort to begging and thievery to survive. In spite of this, Cannae's mother persevered, and in October of 2003, Cannae was born.
     The early days of Cannae’s life were fraught with hardship. Cannae’s mother did everything she could to provide for Cannae, but when Cannae was four years old, her mother was killed by a suicide bombing attack. From then on, Cannae had to fend for herself.
     Cannae lived in Baghdad up until she was eleven. During that time, she stole and swindled to get basic necessities. She also had to fight. Some days she fought fellow desperate orphans, and other days she fought vengeful shopkeepers whom she had stolen from. Because her opponents were often bigger than her, Cannae quickly had to develop her fighting skills—anything less than full commitment and solid execution would result in a beating. By the time she was eleven, Cannae had developed an intuitive grasp of the basic fundamentals of fighting.
     As the years went by, however, Cannae began to desire normalcy. An escape from the poverty and war that she had been immersed in. So in September of 2014, Cannae decided to leave Baghdad. She chose to travel to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, as she knew that she was Kurdish and because Erbil had not been hit as hard by the ongoing conflicts.
     The journey to Erbil was a difficult one, but Cannae managed to complete it. Once in Erbil, Cannae resumed living in the only manner she knew how to: as a thieving street urchin. However, this time around, Cannae was bolder. Erbil had since become a haven for mercenaries, which opened up unique opportunities for Cannae. She began stealing weapons from others—mercenaries, arms dealers, et cetera—and exchanging them for food, clothes, and money. This did not always go smoothly, though: Cannae sustained her fair share of beatings and had nearly gotten shot on a number of occasions. However, Cannae was a quick learner and eventually became good at avoiding trouble—and shooting at trouble, when necessary.
     But Cannae’s status as a burgeoning future arms dealer was cut short by a chance encounter. On a dark August day in 2015, Cannae spotted a mercenary out and about. Confident in her abilities, she figured that she could get in close, steal the mercenary’s handgun, and escape. She would have the element of surprise on her side, and the fact that there were so many people around would make it unlikely that the mercenary would open fire on her. Plus which, Cannae knew the area well, which meant that she already knew an escape route.
     Cannae executed the plan nearly perfectly. However, she had not anticipated the skillful doggedness with which the mercenary would pursue her. The mercenary pursued Cannae through the sprawling back alleys of Erbil, giving her no time to rest. Cannae used every clever trick she knew to try to shake off her pursuer, and seemed to have succeeded at one point.
     Then, out of nowhere, the mercenary caught up to her. Cannae fought with vigor and ferocity to escape but was eventually subdued by the much larger and more experienced mercenary. But rather than beat Cannae up and go on his way, the mercenary decided to talk with Cannae. After hearing Cannae’s abridged life story, the mercenary—whose callsign and alias were Siam—decided to let Cannae keep the handgun (a full size Beretta Px4 Storm Type G).

Image: Beretta Px4 Storm Type G (Full Size)

Image: Siam (The Mercenary)

     From that point onwards, Siam would provide for Cannae, giving her food and clothing. But Cannae did not feel good about receiving free handouts like that. This gave rise to a desire to earn her keep. For the next four months, Cannae begged Siam to let her become a mercenary. Initially, while Siam saw potential in Cannae, he adamantly refused on moral grounds and out of a paternal-like sense of protectiveness. This sentiment did not last forever, though, and in December of 2015, Siam finally acquiesced and began training Cannae as a mercenary.
     Afterwards, Cannae soon found out that Siam was not a lone wolf, but instead was the leader of a squad of mercenaries. Most of the members were ex-U.S. military personnel who, for various reasons, were unable or unwilling to live life as civilians. The remaining members consisted of an ex-Blackwater operative and two ex-Russian military personnel. Siam himself—while he kept his exact background a secret from Cannae—had been a member of the U.S. Army, specifically the 10th Special Forces Group. He had previously been deployed to Iraq in 2002, prior to the main invasion that occurred in March of 2003.
     After joining up with Siam’s crew, Cannae began learning at a breakneck pace. She quickly learned small unit tactics and how to handle firearms. She also greatly improved her hand-to-hand combat skills, even learning sambo from the Russian members of the group. However, her learning was not limited to areas related to combat. Through a lot of self-directed learning, she managed to give herself a rudimentary education. Additionally, because English was the lingua franca of the mercenary group, Cannae picked up English.
     Although Cannae learned from every member of the mercenary group, Siam was responsible for a large portion of Cannae’s training. During this time, Siam gave Cannae the nickname “Cannae”, a name that Cannae uses to this day. The nickname is a reference to the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE where Hannibal used clever tactics to completely surround his Roman adversaries. Siam gave Cannae her nickname due to her cleverness and penchant for tactics.
     Siam’s disposition towards Cannae was that of a stoic mentor, with occasional instances of warmth. To Cannae, it seemed like Siam was intentionally trying to maintain some distance between himself and her—every time the two of them started getting closer, Siam would pull away. A part of Cannae wished that Siam would be fatherly towards her, but she never vocalized this.
     Even though Siam maintained his distance, he actively used his influence as leader to prevent Cannae from participating in mercenary operations. He would become emotional over this issue, a marked departure from his normally calm and logical demeanor. However, mounting pressure from both Cannae and his men eventually led to him acquiescing. By mid-2017, Cannae was participating in operations.
     Cannae quickly proved her worth. Her abilities in combat were comparable to those of her teammates. Moreover, her penchant for tactics and creative thinking was of great benefit on many occasions. Cannae and the team went on many operations including guarding oil refineries, rescue missions, and counter-insurgency operations. These operations took place all across the Middle East. While some of the operations had the team committing some less than savory acts, the mercenaries made sure to avoid targeting civilians (although accidents did sometimes occur).
     Unfortunately, in February of 2021, over half of the team was killed during an operation—Siam was one of the casualties. Demoralized from the losses, the mercenary group disbanded shortly thereafter. Afterwards, Cannae was faced with a decision: she could either continue her life of combat or become a civilian. Part of Cannae wanted to join up with another mercenary group and continue her life as it had been. But another part of her wanted an escape from all of the violence and instability. To live the life of a civilian.
     However, Cannae was unsure what she would do as a civilian. She had little marketable skills outside of fighting and possessed no formal education. After pondering her options for nearly a week, Cannae almost decided to forgo civilian life and become a mercenary once more.
     But a chance occurrence changed that. While Cannae was browsing the internet, she came across an article about LAW: a place that would accept nearly anyone, regardless of background, and pay them to compete in a ring. In other words, being a part of LAW would afford Cannae the opportunity to use her fighting skills in a way that did not require her to risk her life, and she would get paid for doing so. Seeing a way out of her current life, Cannae set out to join LAW.
     There were some hurdles to that, however. One issue was that Cannae had no official identity—as far as the government was concerned, Cannae did not exist. Another issue was getting the necessary documentation to emigrate from Iraq to Japan. However, through some less-than-legal means, Cannae was able to forge a new identity and get the necessary papers for immigration.
     The process of getting everything in place for her to move to Japan took until September of 2021. During the month of October, she made the move to Japan, settling into a small studio apartment. She signed with LAW soon afterwards.

Accomplishments in LAW

• None so far

Relationships

• None yet

Quick Facts

• Cannae has an uncanny knack for learning languages.
  • Her proficiencies in terms of CEFR levels are:
    • Arabic (C2), Kurdish (Soranî dialect) (C2), Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) (A2), English (C1), Russian (A1), Japanese (B2)
  • Cannae taught herself Japanese via self study and has attained basic fluency (CEFR Level B2) in the language
    • Cannae does not know very many kanji so she can sometimes have trouble with reading Japanese.

Secret

• Cannae paid a lot of money to get her beloved Beretta Px4 Storm Type G smuggled into Japan. She does not, however, have ammunition for it, nor does she carry the gun around with her.
• Cannae was introduced to anime by one of her mercenary teammates.
  • She used anime as a means of escapism.
  • Her interest in anime inspired her to learn Japanese.
• During her time as a mercenary, Cannae became acquainted with a Finnish woman named Sofia Valonen.
• Cannae has mixed feelings about the United States. She spent (a little less than) the first eleven years of her life in Baghdad, so she does not necessarily share the same positive sentiments towards America that many of her fellow Kurds do.
  • OOC: This will not come up in RP though.
• Unbeknownst to Cannae, Siam was actually her father.

  ¹ᵃCannae never uses her original name, and her original name is not officially recorded anywhere.
  ¹ᵇThe name "Cannae" is a reference to the Battle of Cannae.
  ²ᵃThe surname Kanai (金井) means "Gold Well" and was chosen because it sounds like "Cannae" (using the Latin pronunciation)
  ²ᵇThe given name Takeko (武子) can be taken to mean "child of war".
  ³ᵃCannae's exact birth date is unknown, even to herself, but she knows that she was born sometime during October of 2003.
  ³ᵇWhenever she needs to specify an exact birth date, Cannae uses October 31st, 2003.