Umi Megami

"Oh come on, relax guys? It isn't like a giant bird is coming to swoop down and snatch us- OH!"

- Umi Megami Umi is an eighteen-year-old girl hailed from the desert plains of Vacuo, where she was born as part of a nomadic tribe. After being passed between groups, Umi eventually found herself homeless on the streets of Mistral. Eventually, she was taken in by the girl who would lady become her partner, Natsu. Umi is a member of Team DAUN at Haven Academy

Appearance
Umi is a petit girl with nothing going for her in the way of curves. She had pearl coloured eyes and a long, odd green hair that seems to be eternally messy and wavy. Her origins have left her with tanned looking skin, but she still has a pattern of freckles on her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose. When underwater, Umi's Faunus trait, her gills, open up as three slits down either side of her neck. They seal closed to allow her to breathe normally out of the water.

Combat Attire
The main portion of Umi's outfit consists of a diagonally buttoned, longsleeved top in her main aquamarine colour with grey highlights. The only difference is a section on her right sleeve and back, where navy blue waves interrupt the aquamarine and wrap around the spot where Umi's emblem is located on her back. Her wrists feature a pair of bracelets made of green rope in order to resemble seaweed. Each bracelet has four slots on it in which Umi fills with water Dust crystals.

She wears a navy blue pleated skirt, above which a grey leather belt wraps around her waist, held by a bronze coloured buckle. From this belt hangs a piece of think cloth that is made of brown, fluffy material. However, the outside of this cloth is covered in silver sequins to appear like fish scales.

She wears a stolen, laceless pair of red and white converse shoes, with a pair of thigh-high socks that end in a wave-like pattern, also coloured aquamarine with the grey highlights.

School Uniform
Umi wears the standard Haven Academy uniform, including the black jacket with the red stripe and white armband, and also the grey chequered skirt. She continues to wear her laceless shoes with the uniform, alongside a full pair of black tights.

Character
Umi is a very lively and hyperactive girl, known for taking life a bit too fast and being rather clumsy because of it, normally by falling down stairs or off of rooftops. This added to her seemingly endless happiness, naivety and friendliness give her a strong air of being very childish, which in part is true. Her difficult life has left her somewhat socially inept, very far away from acting her age. Seeing anything to do with romantic or sexual relations will have her cringing, calling it "icky and gross".

Despite this, Umi's friendliness is genuine and she is a very honest soul. Umi will go out of her way to become friends with most people and will likely devote herself to everyone she can at once. However, it doesn't take a lot to break Umi's trust, and very much like a child, she can be ridiculously quick to declare someone who was fast on their way to becoming one of her friends a meanie who she will then make sure to sulk around.

Her past has also left her with severe abandonment issues that culminate both in her way of making friends far too quickly and being overly trusting of them, but also a crippling fear and paranoia that for whatever reason her friends are going to end up abandoning her, even when those feelings are entirely unreasonable. When her fears rear their ugly head, Umi can drop into panic attacks or even severe temper tantrums.

Early Life
Umi was born in a tribe in Vacuo, her parents, an Alsatian mother and an Ox father being the leaders of that tribe. Despite their wishes, Umi was born a girl and seemingly had no clear Faunus trait of her own, but they still at first tried to raise her. However, when Umi was three years old the tribe had stopped by a river to rest when the young girl who had been playing in the water called her parents to her. It was there she had first found her Faunus trait, her gills. Looking to her parents to be proud of her, she instead only saw disgust despite being too young to understand it.

A few days later, Umi's parents sold her off to another passing tribe, who proceeded to continue raising her themselves. However, as the only Faunus in the tribe Umi never truly felt at home with them, outside of one man, the leader of this tribe and the one who had initially bought her. With the man as her mentor, Umi spent the next seven years slowly learning how to handle weapons. Umi was sure that she was doing enough, but behind the scenes, her second family had come to see the hyperactive, clumsy girl as little more than a liability who need rescuing too often.

Arriving at a port town on the west coast of Vacuo's territory, the leader of the tribe bought a one way ship ticket to Mistral and sent the girl onto the ship, with the false claim that the rest of the tribe would be on the ship but in an area a girl her age wouldn't be allowed to enter, so she wasn't to look for them. Only ten years old, Umi entirely trusted the man and happily skipped off onto the boat, and thoroughly enjoyed her trip. When the time came to disembark, Umi waited for hours as passengers and cargo were unloaded from the boat, and then waited even longer as they were replaced. Only when the boat left again did Umi realise what had happened, and what happened next. She was alone.

Umi had attempted to find shelter, but being lost in the sketchy side of Mistral left her with little options as many just blanked the little girl or straight up physically forced her away. Scared, distraught and lonely, the days turned into weeks as she survived on morsels of scavenged food. Her clothes started to wear away into tattered rags, and many times she found herself on death's doorway, only surviving from luck. Slowly though, Umi started to adapt to her life on the streets.

From watching others and by many trials by fire, Umi worked out how to steal. Food, new clothes, money and even Dust crystals. Her situation fortuned her, as many refused to look at the now young teen with her grubby face and worn down clothing. And with no eyes on her, nobody ever noticed and she managed to take things as they took their eye off of them.

One particularly fateful night, Umi had hidden in a secluded doorway out of the rain, when a group of drunken men tried to snatch her away. The stress and panic of the situation caused Umi's latent Aura to activate, and her Semblance to manifest itself. A little glowing sea dragon that knocked over the men. Preparing to flee, Umi had quickly grabbed the only thing she had stolen that day and was about to go when one of the men grabbed her wrist. Her Aura spiked out and the crystal in her hand reacted, exploding in the man's face, giving Umi the time she needed to grab her discarded and get away.

Over the next few years Umi would experiment with both her Aura and her Semblance, alongside pushing with what she could do with the crystals she stole. Very quickly her focus fell on the crystals that caused water to appear. Without truly understanding it, Umi learnt that through herself she could control the water that had come from the crystals, moving it how she liked.

Eventually Umi's luck would turn around she had attempted to pickpocket a girl who had come to the area from the farms to the south. What Umi hadn't counted on was the girl sensing her and attacking back, defeating Umi in a fight. The girl, who Umi would later learn was a wannbe Huntress called Natsu, took pity on the young girl and offered her a way out of her life. There was no way Umi could refuse.

For the next year, Natsu and Umi lived and trained together. Natsu had told Umi her romanticised dreams of being a Huntress, and the idea was too apealling to let up. Natsu would be the first of many people to give Umi's dire weapon the first set of fixes and upgrades that it sorely needed.

School Days
During the initiation, Umi found herself in trouble until Natsu arrived to help her. Only with Natsu's assistance was she able to pass. Later on she would meet her new teammates, Dust and Ash, and instantly tried to befriend them. Whilst Dust quickly took to the girl, Ash wasn't as welcoming, going as far as to punch Umi through their bedroom wall on their first morning as a team, leaving Umi scared and upset.

As the year went on Umi's improving skill as a Huntress grew exponentially. With upgrades to her weapon she was finally able to start wielding it properly, and with Dust's help Umi created the bracelets that allowed her to cast from water Dust. Training with Natsu and Dust helped a lot, and eventually even Ash joined them, with Umi finally having earned her respect and Ash having been forgiven.

Together the four girls went on to qualify for the Vytal Tournament, and soon arrived in Vale. Having never seen the city before, Umi dragged her team around the city to try and see everything she could for a week, before they got back to training. Despite not having a partner, Umi managed to enjoy the dance as best she could, apparently not caring that she was dancing alone amongst the couples.Whilst there, she also befriended the members of Team IVRE, including Natu's older sister Eira.

Despite their training, DAUN were eliminated from the tournament during the group stages, having been put against Team IVRE, with Umi being the first fighter knocked out despite her best attempts. Umi was miserable as her team departed back for Haven the next day. Despite not watching the rest of the tournament, Umi still fought against the spike of Grimm activity around Mistral on the fateful night when Beacon Fell.

Umi, alongside her team, continued to study at Haven through their second year. After the battle of Haven, Umi joined her team in doing sporadic missions until the situation at the school could be sorted.

Weapon
Umi's weapon, which remains unnamed, is in its base form a naginata with an ornate wooden handle, a bronze blade and a water Dust crystal for a pommel. At the centre of the the pole handle is a trigger, which when pulled fires out the blade, which is attached to a long but fine chain stored within the weapon. Pulling the trigger again will return the blade to the rest of the weapon. Umi can also use the Dust crystal at the other end for emergency casting.

Umi's bracelets also feature the four Dust crystals which she casts from. This is almost always water Dust, the type Umi feels most comfortable with.

Semblance
Umi's Semblance is known as Ryujin. When it is active, her hair starts to ethereally shimmer.

Ryujin is a glowing sea dragon summon seemingly made of aquamarine marine energy that is warm to touch, and change seemingly change to feel as hard as steel or as soft and supple as if it has actual skin and flesh. Ryujin actually forms at her spine before becoming active, often flying out from under the back of her skirt or appearing out of her hair. Normally Ryujin is the same length as Umi's spine, but unstable emotions can cause it to grow in size, for a considerable strain to her Aura.

Generally though, as her Semblance has no actively offensive power, she can have it summoned for hours at a time without rest as it drains through her Aura very slowly.

Fighting Style
Umi's style mainly focuses on controlling an opponent. Casting water from her wrist, Umi will create multiple streams and attempt to batter her enemies with them, trying to use the strong hits to wear them down. Only if forced up close will Umi turn to using her naginata, and even then will continue to cast as a means of either distracting an enemy of knocking them away.

Umi may also quickly use Ryujin for a quick hit, or to block an attack, however her friend will often stay out of combat.

Trivia

 * Umi's first name can be translated from Japanese to mean the word "Sea"
 * Umi's last name, Megami, can be translated from Japanese to mean the word "Goddess"
 * Umi is based on the Japanese Dragon God of the Seas, Ryūjin, who controlled the seas with magical "Tide jewels"