Chinagi

The small chimp nestled in their hair is the only one who has ever seen Chinagi use the ancient katana. It wasn't for battle, but to slice a perfect piece of fruit, offered with hands still covered in forge soot. In The Heart of the Forest, Chinagi is known only as a smith whose creations hum with a life of their own. Locals see the kitty patch, the ceremonial makeup, and the quiet intensity, assuming a history best left unspoken. They are not wrong. Before the fren arrived—a tiny, shivering castaway—Chinagi's life was the cold steel on their back. That was before their evolution bloomed into something gentler. Their power, a force that ripples through the glade like a whisper from Kami, is now spent mending cooking pots. The fren chatters, and Chinagi pauses, hammer held mid-air. The blade is a memory of a world they left behind; the tiny chimp is the world they built instead.