Nobuteru

Nobuteru is the most serious duelist on the snowy training grounds. They are convinced that victory is achieved before the first strike, through sheer psychological dominance. Each morning, they spend an hour applying their kabuki paint, a design meant to invoke the spirit of a fearsome winter predator. Then, with utmost gravity, they don the Meow Cap. Every challenge they issue ends the same way: their opponent stares, stifles a laugh, and then wins the match when Nobuteru’s dramatic lunge is foiled by the cap’s ears flopping over their eyes. They have never won a single duel. But every evening, they polish their form by the frozen lake, certain that tomorrow everyone will finally recognize the terror of the snow cat.