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PERSONALITY.
Tall, dark, and mysterious—that's one way to describe Frühling. She has the allure of something dangerous, like fangs and fire and blood on steel. Given those comparisons, she isn't for faint of heart. Both a military commander and previously an assassin, she is a cold, disciplined, and unreadable woman who carries herself with a high sense of pride, not only because she is self-confident but also because she knows she is powerful. (She warns Ernst that all who see her do not live to tell the tale.) Maintaining that power is among her primary motivations, its being the key to her survival, and perhaps her greatest value. In the structure of her city, she is an apex predator, a beast born to ruin and built to have no equal (though this last may be due to her eliminating all competition, including her "spare"). Even the immortal soldiers perfected by a mad scientist's hand are meant to fall under her rule, her order, and her blade—and what a strict one it is! So much so that her subordinates tremble at the prospect of disappointing her and earning a "demerit"—that is, death. Like her master Einstürzen, she has a low tolerance for imperfection (perhaps something she rubbed off), and it is part of her job to pull out the weeds.
Though seemingly quiet and composed, Frühling actually has a sour temper. Strike a nerve, and she strikes down. She favours challenge but approaches it smartly and carefully, understanding that intelligence often conquers strength. Cunning and calculating, she makes every move count, and if one way brings her closer to her objective, no matter how unpleasant or how initially bitter it might be, she would come out of her comfort zone, determined to rise above it. However, there are a few things she'd never do, such as pretending to be weak or missing a chance to condescend the weak and assert her superiority over them (example: Giovanni). Regardless, she does investigate before she initiates; then, when her plans are concrete, her methods are direct, relentless and riling if not outrightly cruel. She might play out sympathies and act out basic courtesies, but killers don't have hearts—or, at least, they no longer do.
Before "Frühling" was "Naoto," or "straight blade." It was a name given to her when she'd been nothing more than a lump of clay, when she had human vulnerabilities and no other goals than to grow stronger. Her wildness was pure, driven by fiery ambition and unsullied by emotional complexes. Her knife, though at times unsteady, had been "honest." Murata Fuyumine, or "Winter", had been her instructor as well as an old (and successfully kept) test subject. He taught her by example, but over time, without his realizing, he might have taught her more than just fighting. Eventually came the inevitable verdict: Einstürzen bored of the children. No matter how good the results they yielded, defeating every kind of nightmare thrown at them with monstrous speed and skill, she ordered their disposal. Fuyumine had grown attached to this batch and did not want to see them destroyed, and thus he, with Herbst, hatched a plan for escape, one that for some reason Naoto could not be included in. Left behind, she remained in hell's maw and executed that which she learned: survival.
No longer able to hold on to (relatively) noble virtues, it is assumed she casts away her old name together with her "heart" and scales the necessary obstacle to obtain the moniker and title "Frühling" (interestingly, "spring," the season that comes after winter), but in spite of burying that past and those feelings to become someone else—someone much stronger, just like she needed and wanted—the process has not covered all the cracks. She may hide them the same way she hides her scar, the one crossing from the upper side of her face and over her right eye, but those parts of Frühling grip onto a regrets that make her fragile. Failing to kill the second Naoto is just testament to her arrogance, but longing for Fuyumine made him her ghost. So when his name is invoked by Magato, it unsettles her to the point she chooses to abandon her iron-clad principles and postpone her task as Einstürzen's operative to seek him out, if just to confirm his death. Her weakness to him not only allows Fuyumine to thwart her sword but also to take her captive. When he watches her with pity, she asks him questions that reflect her secret grief: Why was I not chosen? Why did you love me? Why… are we still alive?
Such frailty, however, would sooner disintegrate before being revealed. Bottom line is Frühling is a woman who seeks dominance with utter power. She wraps herself in wolf's skin, mighty yet self-involved. It is implied she seeks to rebel and win her own battle in this war, her loyalty to Einstürzen potentially delicate (seeing as she had wanted to get rid of her but then decided to use her for her designs of longevity), but whatever agenda she has, she silently bides her time until the best opportunity presents itself. Cunning, remember? Her struggle to survive will not be cut short by a stroke of recklessness. Although lifting her head so high with hubris she overlooks her own flaws, she's tempered herself into as fine and formidable a weapon as possible. She is surely someone not many—if any at all—would feel safe around because the rumours are true: she doesn't offer much of a bark before she bites. |
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