[attr="class","header2"]APPEARANCE

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Her story begins in the most unlikely of places: Faridabad, India. Born into a middle-class family to a young scientist from Egypt and a woman from India. Her parents were both quirkless, and upon discovering that her mother was pregnant, she believed that the young Chameli would be too. When she was born, she had a noticeable genetic condition that the doctors initially mistook for a mutation quirk: heterochromia iridum.

It was a rare occurrence for someone to have it, which was made even stranger when considering no one in her known family had ever shown any sign of it. Because of this, her father would often call her his sun and his moon, in reference to the color of her eyes, as well as read her stories of a fierce warrior of justice whose eyes allowed them to walk the path of light and darkness. It quickly became her favorite story, so much so that by the age of ten, she could recite all the stories her father had told her about the warrior by heart.

But life went well for her and her family. She lived the greater portion of her life under the guise that she was quirkless. Where some saw despair, she instead saw freedom—the freedom to be undefined by her quirk; her life was meant for her to decide. But it also meant she would have to work harder than others to stand out in a crowd, much like her father, whose work in quirk studies was finally being noticed.

Her father’s chosen field of study was what many sciences of the time were focused on: quirks. Specifically, what were their causes, and what factors led to their development? A big topic for such a small fish, but eventually it would get him noticed as a scientific company would reach out, offering to help him further his research with like-minded individuals. At this time, Chameli was beginning to have a rough time in school as her shortcomings became more and more apparent. It started small with comments and jokes, eventually leading to her being seen as a bit of an outcast by students, but her parents had prepared her for this as her attitude allowed her to thrive in even the worst conditions.

Although she had been prepared, many others around her were not. And during the rise of heroes in her nation, she saw many people get hurt or even refuse to help others, something she would grow to resent. Being quirkless, her wits would only get her so far, and so she was forced to simply watch. Her parents moved shortly after to their new home in Hakodate.

This move allowed them to start fresh, entering a new area with new people for Chameli and her family to meet. They all adapted quickly, Chameli’s father with the company and her mother opening a small restaurant. And life was amazing for them up until the events of Jigokuraku, in which her father was caught in one of the attacks while looking for a present for his daughter and wife. She still remembers the sounds of her mother crying and that feeling of hopelessness and anger alone in her room, and then something happened.

Almost as if it were fated to be her quirk activated, a bubble hit the wall separating her room from the hallway closet of their apartment, putting a sizable hole through it. Her mother, after the loss of her husband, was much too distraught to question it, assuming it was another villain attempting to take away another loved one. From that point on, Chameli had begun to train her quirk in secret, on dark nights, in abandoned buildings, and in the most secluded places she could find herself.

As she trained, she kept finding herself returning to the same questions: where were the heroes, why couldn’t they protect her father, and why didn’t anyone else help? These questions tormented her endlessly until, after a night of training, she saw a reflection of her eyes in a cracked mirror that reminded her of her father’s stories. The warrior who walked the line between light and darkness, a true beacon of justice who knew that not everything was black and white and sometimes the light needed to destroy the darkness, would become that warrior.

Her first step was a small test: a small gang roamed near the shops in Hakodate. Her small test became a big lesson, as she had made a rash decision in her anger, leading to her first loss and hospital trip. The doctors didn’t think much of it, but her mother, terrified, forbade her from going out at night, which she disobeyed once she healed. Going back out into the streets, she used her painful lesson learned at their hands to return the favor, hospitalizing a fair number of them. Only to have a few get away unscathed.

It was her first real victory, and it felt good, so why would she stop? Why would she wait for a hero to maybe show up and save the day when she had the power to do it herself? She could stop people from suffering, and by walking the line between hero and villain, she could protect the innocent from what she had been put through. So, she set out into the streets of Japan to be the warrior her father had spoken of—the sun and the moon—the one to balance the scales.