Kireiko

The week after they were declared dead, Kireiko walked back into The Great Panda City. The mission had been a failure, a slaughter in the high-altitude winds, and their life was the price. But something refused to let them rest. They awoke changed, hollowed out, with the chilling weight of a salmon inexplicably fused to their head—a grotesque mockery of a crown. They once carved beautiful flutes and delicate sculptures from the bamboo they carried. These days, their hands only remember how to shape the stalks into sharpened points. They are a ghost in the city they gave everything to protect, a walking tragedy the Panda Council pretends not to see.