Taokaka

"In the name of... that round white thingy in the night sky... I shall punish you!"

Taokaka is a Kaka and the guardian of the village where the majority of her species resides underneath the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi. She temporarily relinquished her position as guardian to aid Ragna the Bloodedge and has unbelievably keen senses despite her juvenile behavior and mindset.

She first debuted as one of the original 12 playable characters in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger.

Appearance
Tao is one of the Kaka, and thus shares a lot of their characteristics - chiefly her blood red eyes and toothy smile hidden within the shadows of her signature hood, and a long black tail with a white tip. Her long blonde hair is tied into two braided tails with yellow ribbons keeping them together, and she has tanned skin. She wears a cream colored hoodie that stretches to her hip; this hoodie her large cat ears on the hood and two long sleeves which have rounded ends with paw-prints on the palms - hidden within are multiple silver blades. The front of this hoodie has a long zip from the bottom to the collar, with the zipper being bright red and paw-shaped. Underneath this she wears red panties and bracers. Tao's look is finished with unique platform shoes with cream legwarmers covering most of their front.

Personality
Her hyperactive behaviour and incredible ability to almost forget anything would lead people to assume that Tao isn’t a threat, but her carefree personality has her always itching to “play." Tao’s forgetfulness often drives characters to their breaking points as she will never remember a name, and forget even the most basic things about the world around her. In fact, the only things that seem to really matter in Tao’s mind are food, naps, and breasts – the first two could be attributed to her cat-like instincts while the latter is a fascination which she seems to be only one in her clan to possess. Her speech is littered with verbal ticks such as “meow” (as a substitute for ‘me’) and “neow” (as a substitute for ‘now’), although other Kaka, such as Chachakaka, also possess this trait, a select few, like Torakaka, rarely display it.

With her dim-witted nature comes the fact that Tao is undoubtedly innocent, having no real knowledge of what is right or wrong and simply doing what she wants. Although this is unpleasant to certain individuals, she has no negative intent. In fact, she will usually go out of her way to make others feel better, especially with Ragna. This all said, she is merciless to those who harm those close to her, such as Arakune.

Biography
The guardian of the Kaka Village, Tao was raised to be the new village guardian once Torakaka decided to leave. One evening, she was with Tora and met Ragna for the first time, calling him a "block-headed person" and ran away from him.

She forged a deep and loving trust with her clan and is well trusted to protect them despite the attacks made by Arakune. She is well acquainted with Litchi Faye-Ling, a doctor who frequents the village, and Jubei, the one who her genes are descended from. All the Kaka Kittens admire her, and see her as a role model.

Capricious Us
A meeting was held by Totokaka to discuss the recent attacks made by Arakune and the general affairs going on in the village, such as a severe food shortage. Tao, however, was absent from this meeting that she was supposed to attend. Later on Toto found her wandering around the center of the village and asked that Tao do a favor for her in return for a year’s supply of catnip. Her choice obvious, Tao agreed despite her earlier objections of it being too much work. The job in question was to look around the higher levels of Kagutsuchi which could help with returning sunlight to the starved areas of the village.

Calamity Trigger
The kittens woke Tao up in the middle of one of her naps, giving her an assignment from the elder of the village to pursue Ragna the Bloodedge and claim the reward money from him. Directed to Orient Town, she found herself fighting Ragna out of desperation to be fed. When the battled ended, Ragna treated her to a meal at the local restaurant, but Tao was completely unable to recognize who he was since the wanted poster issued to her had such a terrible drawing of Ragna that even he was unable to recognize himself. Unfortunately, neither of the two had any money to pay for the meal so they fled as quickly as possible and were chased down by the restaurant staff, passing Linhua along the way.

The two ran into the Kaka Village, where both Tao and Ragna encountered the elder. She apologized to Ragna about being taken in by the guardian and offered up a secret passage into the higher levels of Kagutsuchi so he could evade those searching for him. Tao showed him the way, even though it cut directly through Arakune’s den. At the end she stood down, opting to stay in the village instead of encountering the “evil squiggly." Both Litchi and Noel Vermillion entered the area and Tao immediately groped the lieutenant before ending up extremely disappointed with what little she found. Litchi and Tao went to the elder’s house, but Tao had to sit and listen to the dark situation that was the Kaka’s population problems, although her attention shifted as soon as Noel walked into the building.

Trigger Shift
Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi's blast had devastated the nearby mountainsides so Tao helped Litchi, Linhua, and the Ikaruga Ninjas in Orient Town by fetching medical supplies for the injured civilians.

Continuum Shift
Back at the village, Tao was resting before being woken up, again, by the kittens for another mission from Toto: to broaden her horizons and become a warrior worthy of protecting the Kaka. Instead of going off, she went to go back to her napping where she found Ragna as he fell from the sky, so she took him down to the elder’s shack after fighting off Arakune who had sensed the Azure. Inside the shack, she reunited with Torakaka and was told to find Litchi so that Ragna’s wounds could be treated. On the way there, she ran into Relius Clover who observed her as being a remarkable copy of Jubei, even complimenting her spectacular senses. Since Litchi was away, she only found Bang Shishigami and Carl Clover inside the area, but they pointed her in the right direction where she eventually found the doctor and directed her to the village. When there, she played around with Ragna’s wounds and went so far to test out his fighting ability after he healed up.

Tao traveled around some more before meeting Tsubaki Yayoi, who she took an instant liking to thanks to her knowing about her species. Upon mention of Ragna’s name, Tsubaki came under the impression that the Kaka was working alongside the Grim Reaper and attacked, but, after the battle, she too was fondled by Tao, which earned her the new nickname “Average Lady.” Tao wandered off further into the Hanging Gardens where she found Hazama and Noel, and the former forced the latter to fight as a test of her life-link. After the fight, Jubei jumped in to defend her from both Relius and Hazama, commanding that the Kaka follow Hazama to the top of the NOL branch where she fought him before suffering a brutal loss at his sheer strength. Jubei saved her again and carried her to the village where the hero told her to partner up with Ragna through his journey into the Ikaruga Federation.

Chrono Phantasma
Soon enough, both Tao and Ragna had come near the remains of Celica A. Mercury’s church, and she learned about his family before wandering off on her own. She entered the Old Kaka Village and met Torakaka, overjoyed to hear from her and came to learn that Momokaka was now the temporary guardian of the village until Tora or Tao’s return. She felt something was off, however, and ran towards Ragna’s direction where she met with him, Rachel Alucard, Nago, and Gii; her instincts lead her to the location as she caught onto the presence of Izanami.

Ragna and Tao got into the 7th Hierarchical City of Kazumotsu and the both of them blamed one another for taking so long to get there, but Taokaka’s persistence had them visiting a local restaurant to eat. Half-way through the meal, they were interrupted by Bullet, but her uniform made Tao’s uncontrollable mouth call her out as “nyaughty." She watched as Bullet and Ragna gave one another intense stares, but Tao left to find Noel when Ragna brought the subject up. As it turned out, Tao hadn’t left the restaurant and beat up the owner so she could find Ragna, but bumped into Celica A. Mercury and the two found him severely beaten up.

Tao joined Ragna, Celica, Rachel, Nago, Gii, Noel, Jin Kisaragi, Kokonoe, Kagura Mutsuki, Makoto Nanaya, and Hibiki Kohaku in the giant feast before the arena matches. She chastised Ragna for eating so much, but she gave him 5 popularity points.

Central Fiction
As one of the chosen, Tao was sent into the Embryo and her memories were largely altered. She travelled to a distorted version of Roningai, meeting Bang, telling him that she would no longer be his apprentice, deciding to self-graduate. She told him she was going to hunt down Ragna, as she was unaware of their relationship with her memories now altered, and still believed him to be the notorious Grim Reaper with the incredible bounty on his head.

In the alternate version of Orient Town, Tao found Ragna and tried to apprehend him before her empty stomach caught up to her. She begged him for food, so he gave in and treated her to a massive meal. By treating her, Tao decided that Ragna was a “good guy”, again, and ran out of the restaurant when Ragna realised he couldn’t pay the bill she had amounted. Presumably because of the distorted geography of the Embryo, Tao and Ragna ended up inside Roningai where they were ambushed by Carl. Tao was sent flying by Deus Machina: Nirvana. The following morning, she tracked Ragna by scent to Litchi’s clinic, and offered to take him to the Kaka Village to shelter him from the NOL. . She played with him in the village, and when an NOL soldier arrived to inspect the area, she told the Grim Reaper about the exit towards the sewers, although she recommended against it.

Transported with the other chosen by Nine the Phantom to Ikaruga, Tao was told to kill Izanami in order to fulfil her dream by obtaining a piece of the Azure. She came across Tsubaki, and cheered her up before becoming carried away with herself and began fondling her. Afterwards, she told the soldier that she was fighting for her friends and justice, and left to go and find the “bad guys”. She found Bang later on and helped him escape from both Nine and Nu-13. Even deeper in the Embryo, Tao found, to her surprise, Tora. The older Kaka asked what Tao’s dream was and she explained, leaving in very high spirits after Tora called her a “great Kaka warrior”.

Iron Tager would later contact both Tao and Bang, asking them to assist Litchi in finally taking down Arakune, she agreed, finding her and then tracking down the monster with her superior sense of smell. She battled the monster but switched out with Litchi who was swallowed by it and then spat out. The Kaka woke her up and looked after her as Bang fought Arakune instead. During their fight, Tao and Litchi dissolved into seithr, their data backed up by Es.

In the new world created by Ragna, Tao returned back to the village from her journey, being tackled by the kittens. She reunited with Tora, and was last seen with a huge grin on her face.

Powers & Techniques
Since she is the guardian of her clan, Tao is one of the most powerful of the Kaka race and her power has been recognised by even Jubei himself. Hidden within her seemingly non-threatening paws are a vast array of blades, some curved, and some hooked, all of which she can use to slice away at her target with the overwhelming strength that her species are known to possess. Her ditsy personality arguably lends her more strength, as she often struggles to hold back, giving everything she’s got in a fight and only really sees fights as playing anyway. Tao’s Drive, Dancing Edge allows her to dash at lightning speeds and attack an opponent with her razor sharp claws. Oddly, Tao has no training in how to access certain Ars Magus that she uses in attacks and instead innately uses up the seithr around her for attacks; she also has a fairly high aptitude with the substance since she needs less units of seithr in order to activate the Ars.

An impressive skill that Tao has is an unknown sense that allowed her to detect the presence of individuals such as Hades Izanami, something that even Rachel Alucard couldn’t do.

Taokaka
''She is a descendant of the Kaka Clan, a race of bioweapons created from the genes of Jubei, one of the Six Heroes.

''Simple and moody, put nicely, she’s innocent, but on the flipside, she hardly listens to others, but rather does whatever her primal instincts tell her. She loves interaction with others, and often forgets her objective when there is something else that interests her.

''Her short-term memory is worse than that of a bird, and she has been known to forget things after taking only three steps. She cannot remember people’s names, and will give everyone nicknames based on an arbitrary trait. Her favorite activities are napping and eating, and when it comes to that, meat buns rank the highest.

''While she’s the current protector of the Kaka Village, she joins Ragna on his quest, so that she might also grow as a warrior. For now, they head to Ikaruga. During Taokaka’s absence Torakaka agreed to protect the village from harm.

Appearences in other Media

 * The mobile game, Mabinogi Duel, stars Tao as a playable card.